
GPO 



LAY -HELPERS 



A PLEA 



THE CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



WITH 



THE CLERGY. 



ty 



BY THE 

REV. THOMAS SIMS, M. A. 

LATE OP QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; 

Author of The Spirit of British Missions, — Christian Records, 
Sermons partly illustrative of the Devotional Services of 
the Church of England, — An Historical Defence 
of the Waldenses, &c. &c. 




{ 

LONDON : 
JAMES NISBET, BERNERS STREET. 



MDCCCXXXI. 



TO 

HER GRACE 

<£f)at lottt*%Qpi)M, Buti)t&& of UemfovU 

THIS VOLUME, 

DESIGNED TO PROMOTE EFFORTS OF A RELIGIOUS 
AND BENEVOLENT NATURE, 

IS, 

BY PERMISSION, AND WITH SENTIMENTS OF 
CONSIDERATION AND RESPECT, 

INSCRIBED 

BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



During the time that has elapsed between 
writing and publishing this small volume, the 
state of alarm into which various parts of this 
kingdom have been thrown, by tumultuous 
assemblages of the people, and various public 
outrages, adds force and cogency to the argu- 
ments employed, in the following pages, in fa- 
vour of the co-operation of the Laity with the 
Clergy, and confirms anticipations which I ven- 
tured to express in a former work.* I therefore 
hope that the less reluctance will be felt to 
weigh those arguments, and consider with im- 
partiality the expediency of adopting the mea- 
sures recommended to attention. For though 
the effects of popular violence have of late 
exhibited themselves chiefly in rural dis- 
tricts, it is to be recollected that the spirit of 
insubordination, in alliance with the principles 
of infidelity, has its origin in cities and large 
towns, to which this subject is principally ap- 

• " Brief Memorials of Oberlin and De Stael," 
pp. 146—148. 



vi 



PREFACE. 



plicable, and afterwards proceeds to taint the 
inhabitants of country villages. But even in 
the latter also, the principle of co-operation for 
which this small volume pleads may be adopted 
on a more limited scale. 

The dangers to which the whole frame of so- 
ciety is exposed, by an increase of the principles 
of disloyalty and infidelity, are indeed such as 
may well urge those who are the friends of civil 
order and religious truth to use strenuous efforts 
to check and counteract them, conscious as they 
must feel, that the tranquillity of their country, 
the stability of the Church of England, and the 
happiness of their children, both here and here- 
after, are menaced by the prevalence of such 
principles. 

In former as well as latter ages the cause of 
religion has received a large accession of 
strength from both the writings and actions of 
the laity ; and the names of Justin Martyr, Du 
Plessis Mornay, Grotius, Boyle, Nelson, Han- 
way, Howard, and others, adorn the annals of 
the Christian church : — names to which will be 
added hereafter those of individuals still living, 
whose efforts have contributed much to promote 
the extension of pious and charitable undertak- 
ings in the present day. Persons of the highest 
attainments, therefore, need not at any time 



PREFACE. 



Vli 



feel ashamed to consecrate their faculties and 
acquirements to the cause of religion ; whilst 
those who engage in the more humble depart- 
ments of exertion in that cause, may with the 
greatest propriety regard even those depart- 
ments as honourable. 

Although instances of the benevolent efforts 
of foreigners are introduced, to stimulate to 
greater efforts at home, I readily concede that 
there is a larger portion (though far too small) 
of lay-exertion in this kingdom at the present 
time than in any other : and I should add, that 
far higher motives than emulation, or worldly 
policy, ought to actuate those who aim to benefit 
their fellow-creatures. Gratitude for the bless- 
ings revealed in the Gospel, a desire to glorify 
the Redeemer of the world, compassionate re- 
gard for others, and similar sacred feelings 
should prompt to enlarged and constant endea- 
vours to further the welfare of our fellow- 
creatures and fellow- Christians ; and the 
deep conviction should be ever cherished, that 
whilst well-digested plans of benevolence may 
mitigate their sufferings and promote their tem- 
poral happiness, the powerful agency of God's 
Holy Spirit is further and essentially requisite 
to ensure a blessing upon attempts connected 
with their spiritual improvement. 



viii 



PREFACE. 



I have stated that the table introduced at 
page 128, is not to be depended upon as per- 
fectly correct ; and will now cite other autho- 
rities for the purpose of comparison. 

One writer in the " Morning Herald" states, 
that there are 11,342 benefices in England and 
Wales ; another that there are 10,602. A 
writer in the " Kentish Gazette" describes the 
number as 10,661. There may be positive 
error in the statements of these writers, and the 
American editor alluded to at page 128 ; or 
those larger numbers may include lesser bene- 
fices, chapelries, &c. which are excluded from 
the smaller numbers. The following table of 
Congregations in England and Wales, uncon- 
nected with the Established Church, extracted 
from the " Kentish Gazette," may be compared 
with the table at page 128. 



Roman Catholics 388 

Presbyterians - 258 

Independents - - - - 1,289 

Baptists ----- 838 

Quakers ----- 396 

Wesleyans - 2,807 

Calvinistic Methodists - - 424 

Other Methodists, of different classes 689 

Home Mission Stations - - 241 



7,330 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. I. 

Pag« 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CO-OPERATION OF THE 

LAITY WITH THE CLERGY SHEWN • • * 

Sect. 1. — From the great Increase of Popu- 
lation ib. 

Sect. 2. — From the great Increase of Crime • 9 
CHAP. II. 

THE NATURE OF CLERICAL AND LAY CO-OPERA- 
TION, AND OF PAROCHIAL AND DISTRICT 
VISITING ASSOCIATIONS DESCRIBED . • 27 

CHAP. III. 

THE CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY WITH THE 
CLERGY IN PAROCHIAL AND DISTRICT VISIT- 
ING ASSOCIATIONS, SANCTIONED BY . 39 

Sect. 1. — The Spirit and Practice of the 
Primitive Church ib. 

Sect. 2. — The Ancient Practice of the Church 
of England 45 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAP. IV. 

Page 



BENEFITS RESULTING FROM THE CO-OPERATION 
OF THE LAITY WITH THE CLERGY IN PARO- 
CHIAL AND DISTRICT VISITING ASSOCIATIONS 54 

Sect. 1. — The Alleviation of the Wants of the 
Destitute, and Amelioration of their tem- 
poral Condition ib. 

Sect. 2. — The Consolation of the Sick and 
Afflicted ....... 62 

Sect. 3 — The Instruction of the Ignorant of 
the Adult Population ; e. g. Prisoners, 
Sailors, Miners, Manufacturers, fyc. fyc. . 69 

Sect. 4. — The Furtherance of the Education 
of Children 83 



CHAP. V. 

ADDITIONAL MOTIVES FOR A MORE GENERAL 
CO-OPERATION OF THE LAY MEMBERS OF 
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH THE 
CLERGY, IN PAROCHIAL AND DISTRICT 
VISITING ASSOCIATIONS, FROM, • 96 

Sect. I. —The Zeal of Members of the Church 



of Rome . ib. 

Sect. 2. — The Efforts of Foreign Protestants 114 

Sect. 3. — The Activity of English Protestant 
Dissenters . . . . . . .127 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 

Page 

Abridged Account of the " Societies for the 

Reformation of Manners" . . . .135 

No. II. 

Co-operation of the Laity with the Clergy in the 

Primitive Church 141 

No. III. 

Advantages likely to arise from Visiting Asso- 
ciations in Ireland ..... 144 

No. IV. 

An Account of Schools for Adults in Wales 

and Scotland 149 



No. V. 

An easy Method of instructing Adults to read . 153 
No. VI. 

Particulars relative to the Order of " Sisters 

of Charity" ...... 155 

No. VII. 

Details respecting the " Compagnie de Dames" . 162 



LAY-HELPERS; 



OR 

A PLEA FOR THE CO-OPERATION OF THE 
LAITY WITH THE CLERGY. 



CHAP. I. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CO-OPERATION OF THE 
LAITY WITH THE CLERGY, SHEWN FROM THE GREAT 
INCREASE OF POPULATION AND OF CRIME. 

Sect. 1. — The importance of the Co- 
operation of the Laity with the Clergy, shewn 
from the great increase of population. 

Whilst the cordial co-operation of the Laity 
with the Clergy, which the following pages are 
designed to advocate, is in every age highly 
conducive to the advancement of the interests 
of religion, the period in which we live, and the 
peculiar circumstances of our country, seem to 
shew its importance in a striking light. In 
proof of this assertion, a variety of particulars 

B 



2 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

will be adduced in the course of our argument ; 
the first step in which shall be a reference to the 
amount of our population. " It is not by any 
means generally understood, as it ought to be," 
observes a modern writer,* " that the present 
rapid increase of population is a new feature in 
our times. During the last century, or the 
greater part of it, the number of inhabitants in 
this country remained almost stationary. Adam 
Smith, writing in 1776, says, ' In Great Britain, 
and most other European countries, the popula- 
tion is not supposed to double in less than five 
hundred years.' This was, indeed, no more than 
a probable estimate ; but it is abundantly con- 
firmed by subsequent investigations, which afford 
us the means of determining the rate of popula- 
tion, both at that period and since, with consider- 
able accuracy. In the years 1801, 1811, and 1821, 
enumerations were made, by authority of Par- 
liament, of the number of inhabitants in Great 
Britain ; and at the same period returns were 
made by the officiating clergymen of every 
parish, of the number of births, deaths, and 
marriages, entered in the parochial registers 
yearly, since 1780. From 1700 to 1780, the 
registers of every tenth year only were given. 

* " Statement of the Consequences likely to ensue 
from our growing Excess of Population, if not remedied 
by Colonization," by John Barton. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



3 



By comparing these returns, Mr. Rickman, to 
whom was assigned the task of digesting and 
methodizing them, has been enabled to draw 
out the following statement of the population of 
England and Wales, from 1700 to 1820. 



1700 . . 


. . 5,475,000 


1710 . . 


. . 5,240,000 


1720 . . 


. . 5,565,000 


1730 . . 


. . 5,796,000 


1740 . . 


. . 6,064,000 


1750 . . 


. . 6,467,000 


1760 . . 


. . 6,736,000 


1770 . . 


. . 7,428,000 


1780 . . 


. . 7,953,000 


1790 . . 


. . 8,675,000 


1801 . . 


. . 9,168,000 


1611 . . 


. . 10,488,000 


1821 . . 


. . 12,085,000 



It will be seen from the table that the increase 
of inhabitants in the fifty years from 1700 to 
1750, amounted to rather less than a million ; 
whereas the increase in the fifty years from 
1770 to 1821, amounts to more than four mil- 
lions and a half" The above writer's principal 
object is to shew the dangers likely to ensue 
from so rapid an increase of population, unless a 
system of colonization be adopted, or an ade- 
quate increase take place in the annual growth 
of bread-corn. But if, in the one case, famine 
and fever, terminating, in numerous instances, 
in death, would be the affecting result ; it may 

b2 



4 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

with equal truth be inferred, that a dearth of 
religious instruction, and a disproportion of the 
means of imparting Christian knowledge to the 
wants of our numerous population, may be at- 
tended with consequences injurious alike to the 
individuals left in this state of moral destitution, 
and to the community at large. 

It does however appear, that, notwithstanding 
recent efforts to a certain extent, provision for 
the spiritual necessities of those inhabitants of 
the realm who are members of the Established 
Church, does not keep pace with our increasing 
population. 

When the subject of a grant of £1,000,000 
sterling, for building new churches, was sub- 
mitted to the House of Commons in the year 
1818, the Chancellor of the Exchequer re- 
marked, " About a century ago, Parliament 
thought it necessary to vote a large sum of 
money for the building several new churches, 
and that measure was carried into effect at a 
considerable expense, but in an imperfect man- 
ner.* ... In the course of the last century, 

* The Chancellor of the Exchequer alluded, of course, 
\o the " fifty new churches built in and about the cities 
of London and Westminster, and suburbs thereof," by 
the Act of 9 Anne. The metropolis and its suburbs 
were supposed then to include 200,000 persons more 
than the churches of the Establishment could accom- 
modate. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



5 



it was probable that our population had been 
nearly doubled ; and independent of this, it had 
become concentrated in the metropolis and other 
districts, so that the accommodation afforded by 
many parishes for worship, was very inadequate 
to the wants of the inhabitants. . . . From 
the return upon the table, it appeared that there 
were 27 parishes, in which the excess of popu- 
lation, above those who could be accommodated, 
exceeded 20,000 souls. Of these, 11 were 
in the metropolis, the rest in the manufacturing 
districts. ... In the next class there 
were 4 parishes, in which the excess of popula- 
tion was about 40,000. ... It appeared 
by a work published by Mr. Yates, and which 
deserved particular notice, that the popula- 
tion of London and its vicinity amounted to 
1,129,000 souls, of which 977,000 were unpro- 
vided for. ... In the city of London, the 
accommodation of the churches far exceeded 
what the inhabitants required. This was the 
case in all our ancient cities; .... but 
places that have risen into notice since the 
Reformation are very deficient. The House 
must be aware how many parochial duties there 
were to be performed, besides the celebration 
of divine service; and with the present in- 
creased population, a minister, however ably 



6 



CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



assisted by his curate, could not attend to the 
whole of them. ... In such a state of 
things, no time was left to the minister to visit 
his parishioners, and afford consolation to the 
dying." 

The magnitude of such parishes at once 
strongly attests the expediency of adopting ex- 
traordinary measures to supply, in some degree, 
the lamented deficiency of attention to the 
various classes of the parishioners. Nor is the 
necessity for such measures materially diminished 
since the period when that statement was made 
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer ; for 
though an additional number of churches has 
been built in different parts of the kingdom, by 
means of a Parliamentary grant of one million 
and a half sterling, and additional accommo- 
dation, to the extent of 206,410 sittings, has 
been afforded by the Society for building and 
enlarging Churches ; on the other hand, the 
population has been rapidly advancing, at the 
rate of one and a half or two millions of souls 
in ten years ; whilst even the new churches are 
surrounded, for the most part, by a population 
far exceeding that to which the clergy can 
attend ; and numerous parishes, besides these 
overwhelm the stated ministers, by the number 
and variety of the duties they impose. On this 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



7 



ground, we seem entitled to infer the impor- 
tance of the co-operation of the Laity with the 
Clergy, in particular duties of benevolence. 

In fact, such populous districts as those in 
question, unless stirred by frequent visits on the 
part of humane and judicious persons, will, like 
those stagnant pools which perpetually send 
forth mephitic exhalations, produce and diffuse 
a moral atmosphere of the most pernicious na- 
ture. 

Whilst thus alluding to the increase of popu- 
lation in cities and large towns, and which partly 
arises from the resort of families and individuals 
who come up from the country, I must not omit 
to notice, that, besides an influx of ignorant and 
profane natives of England, an influx of Irish 
families* also, to a prodigious extent, adds to the 
number of inhabitants in lanes, courts, and other 
abodes of those of the lowest class, who are living 

* It has been said that there are 90,000 Irish people 
in London. ( Anderson's Hist. Sketches.) The town 
and environs of Manchester contain 30,000. In places 
like St. Giles's, London, the morals of the people are 
much corrupted by the residence of many families and 
individuals in the same room, where, still, a high price 
is required for beds. Persons of property, who would 
build courts sufficiently airy, let the houses at mode- 
rate rents, and require the tenants to accommodate fa- 
milies apart, would materially promote the moral im- 
provement, as well as physical comforts of the lower 
classes. 



8 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

in a state of squalid wretchedness. This cir- 
cumstance necessarily contributes to swell the 
sum of ignorance, degeneracy, and crime, 
amongst the mass of the people in the inferior 
walks of life, and strongly enforces the expe- 
diency of visits from judicious and benevolent 
persons ; who, whilst instituting search and in- 
quiry in reference to humane objects, will have 
various opportunities afforded for promoting the 
moral amelioration of their respective districts. 
Neglect in this particular, can scarcely be other- 
wise than productive of the most deplorable re- 
sults; and Dr. Chalmers has very pointedly 
remarked, " When we contemplate the magni- 
tude of those suburb wastes, which have formed 
so rapidly around the metropolis, and every 
commercial city of our land ; when we think of 
the quantity of lawless spirit which has been 
permitted to ferment and to multiply there, afar 
from the contact of every softening influence, 
and without one effectual hand put forth to stay 
the great and the growing distemper ; when we 
estimate the families which, from infancy to 
manhood, have been unvisited by any message 
from Christianity, and on whose consciences the 
voice of Him who speaketh the word that is 
from heaven has never descended, we cannot 
but charge that country which, satisfied if it 
neutralise the violence, rears no preventive 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



9 



barrier against the vices of the people, with the 
guilt of inflicting upon itself a moral, if not a 
political suicide." # 

Sect. 2. — The importance of the co-opera- 
tion of the Laity with the Clergy, shewn from 
the great increase of crime. 

In the present Section, I propose to argue 
in favour of the co-operation of the Laity with 
the Clergy, from that increase of crime which 
has been painfully conspicuous in modern days ; 
and will endeavour to point out a few of th 
more obvious causes of that increase of crime : 
subjoining remarks on that counteracting influ- 
ence, which judicious and benevolent persons 
among the Laity may exercise for the purpose 
of checking and diminishing the amount of 
local, consequently of national delinquency. 

(1.) The fluctuation and uncertainty attend- 
ant on trade, have, doubtless, contributed in a 
great degree to the increase of crime in modern 
times ; especially that affecting description of 
it, juvenile delinquency. For when particular 
branches of trade suffer even a temporary 

* Chalmers' Christian and Civic Economy, vol. i. 
p. 112. Dr. Chalmers remarks, at page 239, " that in 
our large cities, one-half, at least, of the labouring 
classes are, in respect of the ordinances of the Gospel, 
in a state of practical heathenism/' 

b3 



10 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

decline of prosperity, and a too improvident 
class of persons (those employed in manu- 
factories) are thrown wholly out of work, or 
engaged at extremely low wages, the tempta- 
tion to pilfering is soon yielded to, and crimes 
of different kinds follow in succession. As 
the deplorable fact, that crime, in general, as 
well as juvenile delinquency, has been greatly 
on the increase, for some years past, is univer- 
sally admitted, it is unnecessary to enter largely 
into proof ; yet, in order that a somewhat cor- 
rect idea may be formed upon the subject, I 
will just state a few particulars. 

Lord Chief Justice Best, in his charge to 
the grand jury of Somerset, in 1827, remarked, 
in reference to " the experience of the last 
twenty years," that " in that space of time 
the population had increased one-third, while 
crime had augmented four-fold." 

A Report of the Committee of the House of 
Commons states, in fact, that the number of 
commitments for trial in England and Wales 
had increased nearly four-fold,* having been 
as follows : — 

* " The main cause of the increase of crime in the 
agricultural districts/' the Report states, " appears 
clearly to be the low rate of wages, and want of suffi- 
cient employment for the labourer." 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



11 



In 1806 . . . 4,346 
1816 . . . 9,091 
1826 . . . 16,147 

Since that period, it appears by further Par- 
liamentary returns, that there has been a fear- 
ful progression; chiefly in crimes against pro- 
perty ; the commitments being, 

In 1827 . . . 17,921 

1828 . . . 16,564 

1829 . . . 18,675 

At the Quarter Sessions at Bristol, in Ja- 
nuary 1830, out of 47 prisoners, 21 were under 
20 years of age. 

The following table exhibits a fearful in- 
crease in the number of commitments for crime 
to the gaol at Leeds, during the last 14 years. 



Year. 


N° committed. 


Year. 


N° committed. 


1816 . 


434 


1823 


. . 1,763 


1817 . 


815 


1824 


. . 1,777 


1818 . 


903 


1825 


. . 2,093 


1819 . 


. 1,223 


1826 


. . 2,183 


1820 . 


. 1,301 


1827 


. . 2,377 


1821 . 


. 1,223 


1828 


. . 2,211 


1822 . 


. 1,315 


1829 


. . 2,399 



The Chairman of the Quarter Sessions at 
Gloucester, after stating that the calendar of 
the present year, was the heaviest he had ever 
known, — there being 123 prisoners — ascribed 

B 4 



12 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

the painful circumstance partly to the distress 
generally existing. 

Here then is one case in which the co-opera- 
tion of the Laity with the Clergy may be of 
the most beneficial tendency ; for when, in 
consequence of visiting the abodes of the 
wretched, they become personally acquainted 
with families and individuals; ascertain their 
distress at particular periods, when the fluctua- 
tions of trade most heavily press upon them ; 
relieve their temporary necessities ; and impart 
words of counsel and of consolation ; great num- 
bers, it is obvious, would be deterred from 
addicting themselves to pilfering, and other 
crimes for which multitudes are brought iuto 
courts of justice, in seasons of unusual adver- 
sity ; and, instead of violating the laws, would 
be led to exercise industry and patience, and 
even if their former comforts should be un- 
avoidably abridged, will abstain from excesses 
which can only be productive of injury to 
themselves as well as others. 

(2.) It is lamentably certain, that one of 
the principal sources of the evils, by which 
cities and large towns are deluged, is the 
dram-shop, where intoxicating liquors, espe- 
cially gin, sold at a cheap rate, suddenly in- 
flame the minds, and gradually consume the 
bodies of those addicted to them. The pro- 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



13 



digious increase of the number of such shops 
is an unequivocal and most unfavourable sign 
of the state of society. The increase of lunacy 
amongst the poor, as well as of crime, is attri- 
buted, in part, to that pernicious habit of dram- 
drinking, which now prevails so extensively. 
Within two years, the number of lunatics in 
the County of Middlesex has increased from 
800 to 1,200, chiefly, it has been affirmed, 
from excess in the use of intoxicating liquors. 

How vast and accumulating a mass of evil 
has resulted from the excessive use of ardent 
spirits, may be judged from the affecting cir- 
cumstance, that the consumption of articles of 
that description has doubled in the last ten 
years. 

If any advice be likely to avail in this in- 
stance, it must surely be that of kind and dis- 
interested visitors ; but whose admonitions, even 
should they fail with those habituated to drink- 
ing spirituous liquors, will, in all probability, 
operate very strongly to create a dread of the 
same vice in the younger members of house- 
holds ; induce them to attend Sunday schools, 
and places of worship; and thus, in a good 
measure, secure those who will hereafter come 
upon the stage of public life, (when their older 
friends and relatives have been carried off,) 
from the contagion of bad example. 



14 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

(3.) Another evil of fearful extent and mag- 
nitude, in populous districts, is that profanation 
of the Lord's-day, which has a tendency to 
undermine the very fabric of society in Chris- 
tian states ; an evil, however, which the active 
co-operation of the Laity with the Clergy, and 
the influence and persuasions of the former, 
when visiting the habitations of the lower classes, 
would very materially correct. 

The seasonable and important letter, pub- 
lished by the Bishop of London, " On the pre- 
sent Neglect of the Lord's-day," contains many 
appalling pictures of the condition of the 
metropolis in this respect; and his Lordship 
has, with much candour, acknowledged his 
obligations to the " Christian Instruction So- 
ciety," for many facts which he has adduced. 
As the statement of that Society is a very com- 
prehensive delineation of the evil in question, 
a copious extract will not be unsuitable in this 
place. 

" The earliest dawn of God's holy day is met by 
scenes of dissipation and riot, occasioned by abandoned 
characters, of both sexes, returning to their homes after 
a night of debauchery in those haunts of vice which are 
now to be found in every part of the metropolis, under 
the specious names of coffee, oyster, and liquor shops. 

" As the sacred day advances, it is melancholy to 
know that the bustle of business commences in the 
various markets of this city, where, in defiance of the 
laws of the country and of God, an open traffic com- 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



15 



mences, which continues with unabated activity till the 
hour of prayer arrives, when, in some instances, a veil 
is partially drawn, till, as the phrase is, the 4 church 
hours' are over. 

" Thus Covent Garden Market has for years ex- 
hibited, not only the fearless exposure of goods for sale 
on several hundred stalls, but also the assemblance of 
multitudes of the most abandoned characters, who in- 
dulge in language so filthy and blasphemous, as to 
make them the terror of every sober inhabitant or decent 
passenger. 

" The other markets, in the west of London, exhibit 
congenial scenes. In the Hungerford, Newport, Fleet, 
and Carnaby markets, there are to be seen persons in 
almost every shop, ready to sell their various com- 
modities, though in some cases, by the appearance of 
a few shutters, deceitful homage is offered to the hal- 
lowed day. But in Clare Market, near Drury Lane, 
no attempt is made to hide their iniquity ; every shop 
is completely open, and every avenue is crowded by 
people, who are invited to purchase by the most public 
display of articles of every kind, and by the shameless 
importunity of those who sell them. 

" Happy would it be if this unholy traffic were 
limited to the market-places ; but it extends to the 
streets, and the number of open shops is truly appall- 
ing. 

" Let any serious person walk through Rosemary 
Lane, Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Shore- 
ditch, and St. Luke's, on the one side, or by Drury 
Lane, Soho, St. Giles, Tottenham Court Road, Pad- 
dington, and the Edgeware Road, on the other side ; 
or by Clerkenwell, Saffron Hill, and Leather Lane, in 
the centre of this city, and he will behold scenes which 
must deeply afflict his mind. 

" The following description of one of these neigh- 



16 



CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



bourhoods is supplied by a gentleman connected with 
the Society : 

" * In walking from Pentonville to the Minories, I 
had observed numerous persons lounging about the 
public-houses and wine-vaults, and many others offer- 
ing various articles for sale at the corners of the streets. 
This I was in some measure prepared for, having 
witnessed such things on my former visits to London. 
When going down the Minories, however, toward the 
lower end, I was astonished to perceive many of the 
clothes shops partially open, the door-ways within and 
without hung round with various articles of wearing 
apparel, having the prices marked on tickets in glaring 
characters, and the pavement occupied with salesmen 
inviting the attention of the populace to the quality and 
cheapness of their merchandize. I went on from hence, 
through Rosemary Lane, to St. George's Road, and 
here (in the Lane) the guilty scene obtruded itself upon 
my notice, without any attempt to cover its deformity, 
or conceal its shame. The shops of grocers, butchers, 
bakers, coal and corn-dealers, salesmen, and others, 
were wide open ; while stalls and benches were ar- 
ranged throughout the street, and covered with articles 
for food and clothing of all descriptions, and, what I 
took to be, when looking on them in the distance, a 
mob collected to witness a quarrel or a fight, I found 
was a dense mass of persons engaged in all the interest, 
and bustle, and confusion of worldly traffic. I had 
heard of Sunday markets in the West Indies, and of the 
benevolent attempts of Government to abolish them, 
but who ever heard of a Sunday market in London ! 
I blushed for my country — I sickened at the scene, 
and would fain have turned away my eyes, and sup- 
posed myself deceived; but I could not, — the facts 
were too appalling and apparent. Here were garments 
of all sorts, and attire of all descriptions, for young and 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



17 



old, male and female, hung up in the open street row 
upon row ; there were carcases, and sides, and joints, 
and cuttings exposed to the view, and thrust upon the 
notice of every passer-by in the most tempting manner ; 
while scores were crossing and re-crossing the street, 
laying hold of any who seemed disposed to look and 
listen, and inviting all to examine and cheapen, to fit 
on and buy. In one part of the street, a number of 
poor creatures were arranged before and around as 
many boards covered with boots, and shoes, and slippers, 
busily employed in blacking and polishing their several 
wares ; to avoid whose elbows and filthy sprinklings, 
I turned into the cart-road, and then I narrowly 
escaped being required to interfere by a busy butcher, 
who, finding the quality of his meat arraigned by some 
of his customers, turned to the crowd, and darting 
his eye toward a tall Irish labourer on my right, ap- 
pealed to him, with horrid oaths, whether the meat was 
not equal to any in London, and was answered by 
blasphemies equally revolting and offensive, I had 
scarcely passed by the swearing butcher, when my 
ears were assailed by the cries of those, who in 
announcing the qualities and prices of their fruit and 
vegetables, evinced their anxiety to secure customers, 
and empty their baskets. To their noisy din was added 
the quarrellings of drunken men and women of the 
lowest description, — the choppings, and bargainings, 
and reckonings, and cursings of buyers and sellers, 
while the loud vociferations, and disgusting gestures 
of the ragged crowds surrounding the gin shops, occa- 
sioned the most horrible discordances, and completed 
the frightful picture. And this is London ! — London in 
the nineteenth century ! — London on the Sabbath day! 
— London, between the hours of ten and eleven on the 
morning of that hallowed day, — while the bells of the 
several steeples were calling to worship and announcing 
the hour of prayer ! V 



18 



CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



" Another gentleman, who is an active and liberal 
friend of this Society, has supplied the Secretaries with 
the results of his personal inspection of various streets, 
and other public avenues in the north western out- 
parishes of this metropolis, and it is affecting to know, 
that in twenty streets, &c. he numbered no less than 
four hundred and seventy-three shops, of different 
trades, open for business on the Lord's-day, besides 
multitudes of fruit and other stalls, crowds of squalid 
and profligate persons standing around the liquor shops, 
and many places exhibiting rather the bustle of a fair 
than the quietude of the Sabbath. 

" Happy would it be, could we believe, that this is 
the extent of the evil ; but the half is not yet told. 
For whilst the streets and markets present these scenes, 
the fields and banks of various canals in the environs 
of the city, exhibit the same wanton neglect of God's 
holy day, though in other forms. The fields of Mile 
End, Stepney, Bethnal Green, Hoxton, Islington, 
Somers Town, Chelsea, and South wark, are t|ie re- 
sorts of young and abandoned persons, who are engaged 
in the fights of dogs and pugilists, the shooting of 
pigeons, the hunting of ducks, and in various knavish 
games : while multitudes of others are employed in 
the Surrey, the Regent's, and the Grand Junction 
Canals, and the New and Lee Rivers, in fishing and 
bathing. 

" It has been given in evidence by several Magis- 
trates, before the last Police Committee of the House 
of Commons, ' that in the parks and out-skirts of the 
town, numerous gangs and parties of young persons 
assemble on the Sabbath-day, for the express purpose 
of indulging in the vice of gambling.' 

" If we turn from these scenes to the banks of our 
noble river, we shall firM that they also are crowded by 
those who are seeking ' their own pleasure on God's 
holy day.' The passage of steam-boats to Margate, 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



19 



the Nore, Gravesend, and Richmond, on every Sunday 
during the summer months, affords an opportunity of 
Sabbath breaking, which multitudes always embrace, 
but which the unusual cheapness of their fares, during 
the last season, greatly increased. Thus the walls of 
our city were covered with placards, announcing ' Sun- 
day excursions to sea;' and it has been boastfully 
declared by a notorious Sunday newspaper, that six 
thousand persons were thus engaged on the several 
Sabbaths in the month of August. The town of Graves- 
end alone has witnessed more than two thousand 
Sabbath-breakers land on her new pier, and spreading 
through her streets and fields the folly and crime of a 
London population. Nor do the upper parts of the 
river present a more satisfactory scene ; for beside the 
steamers which run to Richmond, many hundred 
wherries are known to pass through Putney Bridge, 
filled by thoughtless multitudes, who, regardless alike 
of the sin and the danger, madly pursue their imaginary 
pleasures. 

" The parks have always presented attractions to 
Sabbath-breakers of every rank, from noble senators, 
who display their brilliant equipages in open defiance 
of the laws they are bound by every obligation to 
uphold, down to the humblest pedestrians, who can 
reach those agreeable places of resort. 

" Nor can we omit to notice the scenes which the 
evening of God's holy day presents, when the public- 
houses and tea-gardens are thronged with noisy Sabbath- 
breakers ; when the cattle, which have been purchased 
at the various lairs in the suburbs in the morning of 
that day, are crowding through the streets towards the 
public market, and when Smithfield itself exhibits a 
scene of uproar and confusion equal to its annual fair ; 
when oaths, shouts, execrations, and cries are heard on 
every side. 

" These facts form but a feeble outline of the picture 



20 CO-OPERATION OF THE lAITY 

which might be drawn of the public state of this metro- 
polis of Protestant Christendom on the Sabbath-day." 

Here the momentous question immediately 
presents itself — what remedy can be applied, — 
what barrier raised? Sermons containing a 
reference to the subject will avail to some 
extent; but most of those who profane the 
Christian Sabbath absent themselves habitually 
from places of divine worship. The example 
of the higher classes, if more generally promi- 
nent, might have some influence ; yet, still 
comparatively little, since profane persons in 
the lower walks of life do not usually reside in 
their neighbourhood. Our chief reliance, I 
conceive, must be on the persevering efforts of 
active and kind-hearted individuals among the 
Laity, who, penetrating the abodes, and ap- 
proaching the persons of those who neglect 
religious duties, may succeed in persuading 
many to attend places of divine worship— their 
parish churches for example, — and especially 
in inducing them to send their children to 
Sunday schools, that, acquiring a measure of 
Christian knowledge, they may escape the 
contagion of the present generation, and be- 
come the ornaments of the next. 

There is, without doubt, a very numerous 
body of persons of rank and opulence in 
England, as well as in the sister kingdom, who, 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



21 



not having- reflected much upon, nor investi- 
gated accurately, the actual state of the lower 
orders, would willingly persuade themselves 
that there are such improvements taking place, 
in consequence of the establishment of National 
and Charity Schools, that no apprehensions 
need be seriously entertained as to the future 
prospects of society, and the immoveable sta- 
bility of its institutions. It is, however, cer- 
tain, that even if new churches were built in 
proportion to the wants of the population, 
(which is not the case,) they will often remain 
unfilled, unless active visiting", added to a 
useful style of preaching, should induce people 
of the lower orders to attend. It is no less cer- 
tain, from experience and facts, that without 
the efforts of the laity, in canvassing over- 
stocked towns, great numbers of children will 
remain destitute of education, even if schools 
were (which is not the case) commensurate with 
their wants. Consequently, no surprise should 
be felt that the very partial religious efforts 
hitherto made, should have failed to arrest 
the progress of crime. Dr. Chalmers has well 
explained the reason, in part, in the following 
passage. 

" This is an age of many ostensible doings 
in behalf of Christianity. And it looks a para- 
dox to the general eye, that, with this feature 



22 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

of it standing out so conspicuously, there should 
also be an undoubted increase of crimes, and com- 
mitments, and executions, all marking an aug- 
mented depravity among our population. A 
very slight degree of arithmetic, we are per- 
suaded, can explain the paradox. Let it simply 
be considered, in the case of any Christian 
institution, whether its chief office be to attract 
or pervade.* Should it only be the former, we 
have no doubt, that a great visible exhibition 
may be drawn around it; and that stationary 
pulpits, and general Sabbath schools, and open 
places of repair for instruction indiscriminately 
to all who will, must give rise to a great abso- 
lute amount of attendance. And whether we 
look at the streets, when all in a fervour with 
Church-going — or witness the full assemblage of 
children, who come from all quarters, with their 
weekly preparations, to a pious and intelli- 
gent teacher — or compute the overflowing 
auditory, that Sabbath after Sabbath, some 
free, evening sermon is sure to bring out from 
among the closely-peopled mass — or, finally, 
read of the thousands which find a place in the 

* Dr. Chalmers alludes to attracting to churches or 
schools, persons already disposed to attend, as con- 
trasted with pervading a population of negligent and 
ignorant persons, by forming local schools, and inviting 
their attendance. 



WITH THE CLERGY.N.v 23 

enumerations of some great Philanthropic So- 
ciety ; we are apt, from all this, to think that a 
good and a religious influence is in full and busy 
circulation on every side of us. And yet, there 
is not a second-rate town in our empire, which 
does not afford materials enough, both for all 
this stir and appearance, on the one hand, and 
for a rapid increase in the quantum of moral 
deterioration, on the other. The doings to 
which we have adverted, may bear with a kind 
of magnetic influence, on all that is kindred in 
character to their own design and their own 
principle. They may communicate a movement 
to the minority who will, but leave still and 
motionless the majority who will not. Whole 
streets and whole departments may be nearly 
untouched by them. There is the firm and 
the obstinate growth of a sedentary corruption, 
which will require to be more actively assailed. 
It is certainly cheering to count the positive 
numbers on the side of Christianity. But 
beyond the ken of ordinary notice, there is an 
out-numbering, both on the side of week-day 
profligacy, and of Sabbath profanation. There 
is room enough for apparent Christianity, and 
real corruption, to be gaining ground together, 
each in their respective territories ; and the 
delusion is, that, while many are rejoicing in 
the symptoms of our country's reformation, the 



24 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

country itself may be ripening for some awful 
crisis, by which to mark, in characters of 
vengeance, the consummation of its guilt."* 

(4.) Another source of rapid demorali- 
zation in the present day, is that vulgar sort 
of infidelity which is too easily produced in 
half-informed minds, by deistical books and 
tracts, replete with daring falsehoods, blasphe- 
mous insinuations, and coarse ribaldry ; and 
even by those Sunday Newspapers, which con- 
tain condensed and amassed descriptions of the 
vilest occurrences of the week. The effect of 
such newspapers, (that is of about 40,000 co- 
pies sold at 300 shops, f and probably read by 
200,000 persons) in detaining people, and con- 
sequently alienating them from the ordinances 
of divine worship ; and ultimately favouring, 
even if they do not directly infuse, scepticism — 
not to say bold infidelity — cannot be too deeply 
regretted. 

Many persons may be disposed to urge en- 
forcing the penalties of the law with rigour, for 

* Chalmers' Christian and Civic Economy, vol. i. 
pp. 65, 66. 

f If the Churches and Episcopal Chapels of London 
amount to about 250, and the congregation, on an 
average, consists of 800 persons, the number of hearers 
is only 200,000 at a church service at one part of the 
day. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 25 

the purpose of checking the prevalence of such 
flagrant evils as those enumerated. The gene- 
ral character of the present age, however, ren- 
ders it more than doubtful whether punishments 
would succeed as well now as formerly, in re- 
pressing public disorders ; and whilst their in- 
efncacy is thus questionable, it follows that the 
policy of inflicting them, except under very 
peculiar circumstances, cannot be well sus- 
tained. To the very principle of repressing 
evil in some of the instances referred to, some 
would even object. It is consolatory under such 
circumstances to recollect, that the most effica- 
cious mode of correcting the evils in question, 
is at the same time the mildest, the least re- 
pulsive to offenders, and the most conformable 
to the spirit of Christianity ; namely, that of 
visiting the abodes of the wretched and pro- 
fane, inquiring into their necessities, giving 
salutary advice, offering means of instruction 
to adults and children, inviting them to resort 
to a place of worship, supplying Bibles, 
Prayer-books, and other useful books and 
tracts, and thus introducing those who were 
ready to perish, into a moral atmosphere, by 
the renewing influence of which, as the means 
of spiritual health, they may be afterwards en- 
abled to live and move as active Christians, and 
proceed onward in their course to a better 

c 



26 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

world.* The efforts of prudent and humane in- 
dividuals among the laity for such an object, are 
the more urgently required, on account of the 
" notoriously and lamentably inadequate num- 
ber of the parochial clergy," which has been 
lately alluded to by the Lord Bishop of London ; 
and it may be reasonably hoped, that the acti- 
vity and benevolence of such individua s, will 
not only afford timely aid to clergymen in doing 
good, but render it less frequently necessary 
for magistrates, constables, and police men, to 
proceed to the often-called-for extremity of 
punishing evil. 

* Whilst the temper of the times may preclude in a 
great degree coercive efforts to repress evil, as just re- 
marked, it may be interesting to review the almost for- 
gotten exertions made at a former period. I have, there- 
fore, inserted in the Appendix, (No. I.) an abridged ac- 
count of the once celebrated " Societies for the Refor- 
mation of Manners." 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



27 



CHAP. II. 

THE NATURE OF CLERICAL AND LAY CO-OPERATION, 
AND OF PAROCHIAL AND DISTRICT VISITING AS- 
SOCIATIONS DESCRIBED. 

The heavy responsibility attached to the care 
of a parish, rests unquestionably upon its ap- 
pointed pastor. The address delivered by a 
Bishop of the Church of England to clergymen 
who receive the order of priesthood, contains 
several weighty injunctions. As " messengers, 
watchmen, and stewards of the Lord,'' they 
are exhorted " to teach and to premonish, to 
feed and provide for the Lord's family ; to seek 
for Christ's sheep that are dispersed abroad, 
and for his children who are in the midst of 
this naughty world." The Bishop adds, " See 
that you never cease your labour, your care, 
and diligence, until you have done all that 
lieth in you, according to your bounden duty, 
to bring all such as are, or shall be, committed 
to your charge, unto that agreement in the faith 
and knowledge of God, and to that ripeness and 
perfectness of age in Christ, that there be no 

c 2 



28 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

place left among you, either for error in reli- 
gion, or for viciousness in life." With such 
important duties incumbent upon him, the 
clergyman who has the charge of a very popu- 
lous parish, will require considerable assistance. 
Like the Apostles, he will feel the necessity 
of committing " the serving of tables" to others, 
that he may give himself " to prayer and the 
ministry of the word." Experience will teach 
him, that the aid given by churchwardens and 
overseers of the poor, schoolmasters and cate- 
chists, although it justifies the principle of the 
co-operation of the Laity with the Clergy, is 
still insufficient. Even the deacon, ordained 
partly with a view " to instruct the youth in the 
catechism," and " to search for the sick, poor, 
and impotent people of the parish, to intimate 
their estates, names, and places where they 
dwell," will not be found an assistant adequate 
to the urgency of the case, in such a parish as 
that alluded to ; especially now that the change 
of situation incident to persons of various trades 
and occupations, — the inhabitants of a highly 
civilized commercial country, — and the facilities 
for removal from place to place provided by 
modern ingenuity, occasion a frequent influx 
of new families into cities, large towns, and 
manufacturing districts. Whilst, then, the cir- 
cumscribed limits of parishes in ancient cities, 



•WITH THE CLERGY. 



•29 



studded, so to speak, with churches and con- 
spicuous spires, rendered the pastoral care far 
from overwhelming, even at a period long 
subsequent to the Reformation ; the vast in- 
crease of houses and families in the suburbs of 
several cities and towns, and even in country 
villages where manufactories have been esta- 
blished, (alluded to in a former chapter,) 
has superinduced a demand for strength, time, 
talent, and laborious occupations on the part of 
the parochial clergy in such neighbourhoods, to 
which they are totally unequal, and to which no 
corresponding supply has been yet furnished by 
our national church. 

In such a state of things, it has naturally 
occurred to many minds to inquire, " How shall 
this deficiency be, at least to some extent, met ? 
What remedy can be devised ?" To many such 
inquiring and compassionate persons, clergymen 
and laymen, residing in some of those over- 
stocked parishes, it has appeared, that associa- 
tions composed of lay members, willing to visit 
and investigate the condition of the poor in their 
own houses, would render essential assistance 
towards diminishing the existing evil. Accord- 
ingly, such societies have been partially esta- 
blished, and have been for a longer or shorter 
time in activity, accelerating in their progress 
the religious instruction of the lower classes, 



30 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

checking mendicity, fostering habits of industry 
and economy, and contributing to the temporal 
and spiritual welfare of the sick, the afflicted, 
and the indigent. 

Such associations, when organized in confor- 
mity with the genius of the Established Church, 
seem to imply, not merely the approbation of 
the parish minister, but respectful deference to 
him as a person invested with ecclesiastical au- 
thority. He naturally becomes the president 
of such an association, whether dignified with the 
appellation or not ; the mainspring of the whole 
machine. His counsels and exhortations be- 
come the directory of the visiting members, 
and thus mould them into his authorized as- 
sistants, his genuine representatives among his 
parishioners. By such means his parish resem- 
bles a well-disciplined regiment, or a well-or- 
dered ship of war. The parishioners, pro- 
fessedly members of the " church militant on 
earth," expressly devoted at the font to the 
arduous duties of " Christ's soldiers and ser- 
vants," to " fight manfully under his banner," 
will be marshalled under officers of various 
grades, whilst the pastor exercises that control 
in his parish, which the colonel does over his 
officers and men. Or, if adopting another me- 
taphor in the baptismal service, the minister's 
anxiety be, that the people under his charge 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



31 



should be so " steadfast in faith, joyful through 
hope, and rooted in charity," as that they shall 
safely "pass the waves of this troublesome 
world, and come to the land of everlasting rest," 
the same distinction of ranks, due subordina- 
tion, and persevering activity in the discharge 
of assigned duties appear requisite. 

When the clergyman thus finds himself sur- 
rounded by friends as his willing assistants, 
and appoints their several appropriate spheres 
for investigation ; the plan of visiting the abodes 
of the poor with full effect will require a variety 
of minute inquiries ; the answers to which will 
appear in a table expressly arranged for the 
purpose. Such a table will naturally include 
such particulars as the following: 

Abode. 
Name. 
Occupation. 

Whether a baptized Member of the Church of Eng- 
land ? * 

Whether accustomed to attend Divine Service ? 
If able to read ? 
If he possesses a Bible ? 
If he possesses a Common Prayer Book ? 
What number of children — whether boys or girls — 
and of what age ? 

* It is too probable that many persons in large pa- 
rishes have never been baptized. 



32 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Whether they attend at a Daily School— or a Sunday 
School? 

To these and similar inquiries, arranged in a 
neat tabular form, may be added, likewise, in- 
quiries to this effect : 

Whether members of Friendly Benefit Societies ? 
Whether in the habit of placing out money in Savings 
Banks ? 

These inquiries, if proposed with affectionate 
interest in their welfare, and not with the harsh- 
ness of prying curiosity, are likely to be re- 
ceived, as are counsels that might succeed those 
inquiries, with feelings of gratitude; and I 
would briefly suggest, that the inquiries respect- 
ing Bibles and Prayer Books may be made an 
important means, in the hands of those clergy- 
men and their lay friends who are attached to 
the " Society for promoting Christian Know- 
ledge," of establishing a connexion between pa- 
rishes and district committees throughout the 
kingdom; and of both creating and fully sup- 
plying a demand for Bibles and Prayer Books 
among members of the Established Church. 

It is a strong recommendation of the system 
of Parochial Visiting Associations, that every 
such Association produces, not only its direct, 
but collaterally, various other beneficial results. 
Like the large wheel in a manufactory, it brings 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



33 



into activity other wheels, conspiring, each in 
its sphere, to one great effect. When, for in- 
stance, prudent and discreet persons, of not 
less, we may suppose, than 30 years of age, 
undertake to investigate the condition of a 
district, and institute a variety of inquiries, 
like those just mentioned, the answers elicited 
are likely to lead to the formation of evening 
schools for adults, and of daily schools for chil- 
dren, and the appointment, not only of Sunday 
school teachers, but perhaps of Scripture 
readers, to read the Word of God to the aged, 
the sick, and the infirm, at their own homes. 

Nor will it be difficult, I think, in the gene- 
rality of cases, to procure very efficient persons 
for these benevolent occupations, if care be 
taken to select them from suitable classes of 
society. Thus Sunday school teachers for the 
poor may be found amongst the sons and daugh- 
ters of tradesmen, from the age of 15 and up- 
wards, who may act under the direction of su- 
perintendents of the schools ; and the number 
of such teachers may be increased from time 
to time from amongst the well disposed elder 
scholars, after confirmation, and who, being thus 
usefully employed, will also be preserved, it may 
be hoped, from deviating from the paths of reli- 
gion as they grow up. Young ladies and gen- 
tlemen, above the class of tradesmen, may un- 

c 3 



34 CO-OPERATION - OF THE LAITY 

dertake the instruction of the younger children 
of tradesmen, rather than of the lowest poor. 

Such Sunday school teachers are virtually 
catechists also, who inculcate upon the children, 
in a preliminary form, that system of instruction 
in which the diligent clergyman will afterwards 
examine them, and which he will more fully 
explain. 

With respect to Scripture readers, I may 
observe, that the ignorant population of 
many overgrown English parishes, urgently re- 
quire that such agents, who have been already 
so successful i n Ireland, and whose efforts have 
obtained the sanction of the Lord Primate of 
the Irish Church,* should be employed in this 
country, also, under the superintendence of the 
parochial minister. 

Such Parochial Visiting Associations, though 
peculiarly adapted to the overgrown parishes 
of cities, towns, and manufacturing districts, 
are not wholly inapplicable, on a more limited 
scale, to other parishes of moderate size in 
cities, and to country parishes of considerable 
extent, which include hamlets in different spots. 
There are two extremes, however, which must, 
undoubtedly, be guarded against ; namely, a 

* See Report of the Society for promoting Christian 
Knowledge, 1828, pp. 21, 22. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



35 



disposition on the part of a clergyman to rely so 
entirely on lay assistants, as to omit a personal 
attention to sick persons, or to young persons 
under catechetical instruction ; and, on the 
other hand, a disinclination on his part to avail 
himself of those services of the laity, which pre- 
sent circumstances appear to render indispen- 
sable. 

However ably assisted by the members of a 
Visiting Association, the clergyman will be still 
solicitous to receive their reports and returns, 
perhaps monthly, and to ascertain the actual 
state of families and individuals under his 
charge. He will then be able to judge what 
cases seem to require, as far as his time will 
permit, his personal attention, and what cases 
may, after judicious suggestions, be committed 
to the attention of his friends. 

So also, with reference to the instruction of 
youth, whilst grateful for the help of Sunday 
school teachers, the clergyman will consider 
that such teachers are but instructing those 
young persons on various points of Christian 
knowledge, in a preparatory form, that they 
may be the better able to answer the questions 
he may afterwards propose, when, as enjoined 
by the canons of Edward VI., the Constitutions 
of Elizabeth and James I., and the Rubric, he, 
as minister of the parish, catechises from time 

c4 



36 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

to time in the chnrch, and explains, illustrates, 
and practically applies the subjects introduced 
into the catechism. 

If, however, the clergyman entrusted with a 
large parish, should discountenance, rather than 
adopt the agency of the laity, he will deprive 
both himself and his parishioners of services, 
the value of which it is not even possible to 
compute. 

" Though," Dr. Chalmers well observes in 
his Christian and Civic Economy, " ecclesiastics 
should be accomplished in the whole lore and 
scholarship of their profession, they should not 
discourage the effort and activity of lay opera- 
tives in the cause. They may inspect their 
work, but they should not put a stop to it. 
When they discover a union of intelligence and 
piety in an individual, even of humble life, they 
should patronize his attempts to spread around 
him the moral and spiritual resemblance of him- 
self. They else may freeze into utter dormancy 
the best capabilities that are within their reach, 
of Christian usefulness : and thus it is possible 
for a clergyman, by the weight of his authority, 
to lay an interdict on a whole host of Christian 
agency, whom he should have summoned into 
action." 

" According to our beau ideal of a well going 
and a well constituted church, there should be 



•WITH THE CLERGY. 



37 



among its ecclesiastics the very highest litera- 
ture of their profession, and among its laymen 
the most zealous and active concurrence of their 
personal labours in the cause. The only check 
upon the occasional eccentricities of the latter 
should be the enlightened judgment of the 
former: and this, in every land of freedom and 
perfect toleration, will be found enough for the 
protection of a community against the inroads 
of a degrading fanaticism. It is utterly wrong, 
that because zeal breaks forth, at times, into 
excesses and deviations, there should, therefore, 
be no zeal, or, because spiritual vegetation has 
its weeds as well as its blossoms, all vege- 
tation should, therefore, be repressed. The 
wisest thing, we apprehend, for adding to the 
produce of the Christian vineyard, is to put into 
action all the productive tendencies that may 
be found in it. The excrescences which may 
come forth will wither and disappear, under 
the eye of an enlightened clergy ; so that while, 
in the first instance, the utmost space and en- 
largement should be permitted, for the manifold 
activities of Christian love, upon the one hand, 
there should be no other defence ever thought 
of, against the occasional pruriences that may 
arise out of this operation, than the mild and 
pacific, but altogether efficacious corrective of 
Christian learning, upon the other." 



38 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Whilst Associations composed of gentlemen 
are obviously requisite, Associations of ladies 
are not less so. Those plans of beneficence, 
which the circumstances of many parishes de- 
mand, require female aid in a variety of ways. 

"Such schemes," observes an eminent prelate 
and divine, ' ' can, in very few places, be carried 
into execution, unless the assistance of female 
agency is ailed in. That women should not, 
in large towns, be the only visitors, is evident ; 
but there is no prospect of finding men in any 
number sufficiently disengaged for the purpose : 
and frequently they would be less proper agents, 
and less likely to succeed. The persons who 
are to be found at home, and with whom, there- 
fore, the visitors would be chiefly concerned, 
are themselves women : the men are employed 
abroad in their various occupations. And fur- 
ther, a great step will be gained towards all 
that we are anxious to accomplish, if these, the 
mothers and mistresses of the family, be brought 
under the influence of religion."* 

* A Charge by the Right Rev. John Bird, Lord Bi- 
shop of Chester. Appendix, No. Ill, p. 36. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



39 



CHAP. in. 

THE CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY WITH THE CLERGY 
IN PAROCHIAL AND DISTRICT VISITING ASSOCIA- 
TIONS, SANCTIONED BY THE SPIRIT AND PRACTICE 
OP THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, AND THE CHURCH OF 
ENGLAND. 

Sect. 1. — The co-operation of the Laity 
with the Clergy in Parochial and District 
Visiting Associations, sanctioned by the spirit 
and practice of the Primitive Church. 

" There never," says Lord Bacon, " was any 
philosophy, religion, or other discipline, which 
did so plainly and highly exalt that good 
which is communicative, and depress the good 
which is merely private and particular, as the 
Christian faith." In fact, the religion of the 
Gospel is pre-eminently one of active bene- 
ficence. Amongst other duties of active charity 
which it inculcates, is that of relieving the sick 
and needy ; and " to visit the fatherless and 
widows in their affliction," is expressly said to 
constitute " pure and undefiled religion." In- 
deed, the majestic description of the last judg- 



40 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

ment, by our Saviour himself, in the 25th 
chapter of St. Matthew, gives the highest 
sanction for unwearied exertions in benefitting 
our fellow-creatures ; and plainly discovers that 
such exertions, accomplished or neglected, will 
be the evidence of the reality, or unsoundness 
of the religious profession made by his disci- 
ples. " Then shall the King say unto them on 
his right hand. ... I was an hungered, and 
ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave 
me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took me 
in ; naked, and ye clothed me : I was sick, and 
ye visited me : I was in prison, and ye came 
unto me Verily, I say unto you, Inas- 

much as ye have done it unto one of the least 
of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto 
me." Those on the left hand will, at the same 
time, stand condemned, inasmuch as neither 
visiting nor caring for the poor, the sick, and 
others, they " did it not to Christ." 

As such expressions strongly enforced the 
duties of his disciples ; the example which our 
Redeemer furnished during his lifetime, taught 
them likewise to become benefactors to the 
wretched, whilst his love to their souls, evinced 
by dying upon the cross, furnished the highest 
motive to exertion. 

The primitive Christians were careful to 
follow such sacred injunctions as those implied 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



41 



both in their Saviour's words and actions. 
Accordingly, the early constitution of the 
church at Jerusalem included the appointment 
of deacons, to engage in the " daily ministra- 
tion," which took place for the relief of the 
indigent widows, and, doubtless, other necessi- 
tous persons. 

In other primitive churches, the same tender 
solicitude for the welfare of the suffering poor 
was manifested ; and the salutations addressed 
by St. Paul to his Christian friends at Rome, 
with various epithets of commendation, prove 
how diligently those lay-friends, male and 
female, as well as those ordained to holy 
offices, endeavoured to promote the happiness 
of the poor amongst their fellow-citizens. It 
was with real pleasure 1 re-perused, when at 
Rome, amongst other chapters of the Epistle 
addressed to the primitive Christians of that 
city, that chapter, — the 16th, — in which he 
mentions Phebe, a servant of the church at 
Cenchrea ; Priscilla and Aquila, helpers in 
Christ Jesus ; Tryphena and Tryphosa, who 
laboured in the Lord ; the beloved Persis, 
who laboured much in the Lord. It was de- 
lightful to reflect upon the disinterested bene- 
volence of these and other excellent Christians, 
whose names are there recorded ; — members 
of a church once renowned through the world 



42 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

for its faith and charity — for its martyrs to 
the faith, and its patterns of charity ; — but 
which, in after ages, dishonoured Christianity 
by the ambition and covetousness of its pre- 
lates and clergy, the ignorance and super- 
stition of the laity, and the prevailing degene- 
racy of all classes. To these evils the page of 
history bears fearful, but faithful testimony, 
and the memory of which, no edifices raised 
for charitable purposes, by the munificence, 
superstition, or humanity of the founders, 
however numerous or gorgeous these struc- 
tures may be, and whatever embellishments 
they may add to modern Rome, can ever erase. 

A remarkable instance of the kind attention 
of the primitive Christians at Rome to the 
destitute, occurs in the account of the distin- 
guished martyr, Laurentius the Deacon, who 
suffered in the reign of the Emperor Valerian. 
The Prefect of the city supposed, as the 
heathen often did, that the Christian church, 
since its charity to the poor was so extensive, 
possessed much accumulated wealth, and there- 
fore authoritatively required Laurentius to 
show him those treasures, which, perhaps his 
rapacity might lead, as his power enabled him, 
to appropriate to his own use. The Deacon 
produced the blind, the lame, the widows, 
the orphans, and others dependent upon the 



WITH THE CLERGY. 43 

sacred fund, and pointed them out to the 
enraged Prefect, as the TREASURES OF THE 

CHURCH. 

In seasons of unusual calamity, the charity 
of the primitive Christians became still more 
conspicuous ; and, necessarily obtruded upon 
the notice of their pagan fellow-citizens, ex- 
cited their admiration and applause. Thus, 
when the plague prevailed at Alexandria, in 
the reign of the Emperor Valerian, the 
Christians of that city displayed peculiar 
kindness towards the suffering. Acting in the 
very spirit of the good Samaritan, whom their 
Saviour had proposed as a pattern, they sup- 
plied the hungry with food, and watched the 
couch of the sick and dying. 

Similar kindness in visiting the afflicted, 
was exercised by Christians of the* primitive 
church, when, in the reign of Maximin, in 
the year 813, drought, and its attendants 
famine and pestilence, desolated the eastern 
provinces of the Roman empire : and whilst 
these dire calamities seemed to extinguish, in 
a great measure, feelings of humanity, and 
even the natural affections, amongst their 
pagan fellow subjects, the compassion and 
active beneficence of the disciples of Christ 
exemplified, in a striking manner, the ex- 
cellence of their religion, and the sincerity 
of their attachment to it. 



44 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

So fully convinced was the arch-apostate 
Julian of the tendency of such acts of bene- 
volence to procure honour to the religion 
whose professors practised them, that his hatred 
to the Gospel, and zeal for paganism, induced 
him to attempt a reformation of paganism, in 
imitation of the methods adopted to promote 
Christianity ; establishing alms-houses and hos- 
pitals for the poor and crippled ; and reluctantly 
acknowledging the " singular humanity and 
charity" of those whom he contemptuously de- 
nominated " Galileans." 

In discharging those offices of a tender cha- 
rity, we learn that females rendered very essen- 
tial aid in the first ages. There were even dea- 
conesses, regularly constituted, for the purpose 
of visiting, and administering relief to persons 
of their own sex ; and for instructing them in 
Christian knowledge, by repeating and incul- 
cating the lessons of the catechist. These be- 
nevolent women, who chiefly applied to the 
charitable task of visiting the poor and the 
sick at their own houses, and pious confessors 
when cast into prison, were married persons, 
and especially widows, who were not encum- 
bered with the care of children. 

Thus have we ample evidence,* that the co- 

* In Appendix, No. II. still further evidence is ad- 
duced of the practice of the Primitive Church. 



WITH THE CLERGY, 45 

operation of the Laity with the Clergy, in paro- 
chial arid district visiting associations, is strictly 
conformable to the spirit and practice of those 
earlier Christians, who, living in ages of perse- 
cution, were most likely to imbibe and to exhibit 
genuine Christianity, and whose actions, in fact, 
principally adorn the annals of the primitive 
church. 

Sect. 2. — Parochial and District Visiting 
Associations sanctioned by the ancient practice 
of the Church of England. 

It appears that some of the earliest members 
of the " Society for promoting Christian Know- 
ledge," were distinguished supporters of so- 
cieties for visiting the sick and needy, formed 
above a century ago, by lay-members of the 
Etablished Church ; and thus afford the sanc- 
tion of their example to those who may be dis- 
posed to countenance similar associations in the 
present day. 

The Rev. Dr. Woodward published an ac- 
count of the " Rise and Progress of the Reli- 
gious Societies" to which I allude, and which, 
though on the list of the " Society for promot- 
ing Christian Knowledge," appears to be now out 
of print. It is so instructive, as well as interest- 
ing a document, and so powerfully sustains my 
arguments in favour of visiting associations, as 



40 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

peculiarly appropriate to the present day, that I 
have pleasure in transcribing an abridgment 
of it. 

te Several young men, who had attended the 
sermons preached by Dr. Horneck, and " the 
morning lectures on the Lord's day, in Corn- 
hill, preached by Mr. Smithie, (chiefly designed 
for the instruction of youth,") were advised to 
" meet together once a- week, and apply them- 
selves to good discourse, and things wherein 
they might edify one another. And for the 
better regulation of their meetings, several rules 
were prescribed them, being such as seemed 
most proper to effect the end proposed. Upon 
this they met together, and kept to their rules ; 
and at every meeting (as it was advised) they 
considered the wants of the poor ; which, in 
process of time, amounted to such considerable 
sums, that thereby many poor families were 
relieved, some poor people put into a way of 
trade suitable to their capacities, sundry pri- 
soners set at liberty, some poor scholars fur- 
thered in their subsistence at the University, 
several orphans maintained, with many other 
good works." ; . . "It seemed proper, for 
the better management of their common stock 
for charitable uses, to choose two stewards, as 
the managers of their charity. And the two 
first stewards that I find, (after diligent search,) 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



47 



were in the year 1678, whose names I have by 
me, with a recorded succession of them to the 
beginning of the reign of King James the 
Second/' In this unhappy juncture, the face 
of the reformed religion began to be clouded, 
and all private meetings were suspected. And 
now, alas! some of these persons, not having 
digged deep enough to have a firm root in reli- 
gion, began to shrink and give back, like the 
seed in our Saviour's parable, which had no 
deepness of earth. They were afraid of the 
jealousy of the state against them ; especially 
when they saw the bloody and merciless execu- 
tions, in city and country, with which that reign 
began, which dyed it of such a crimson colour, 
as rendered it frightful to many, particularly to 
these young proselytes. Upon which some of 
them forsook their wonted assemblies, and, 
getting loose from their strict rules and good 
society, they grew cool in religious concerns, 
and some of them grew vain and extravagant. 
But, through the grace of God, there was not a 
total tergiversation among these young disciples 
of our Lord ; but, on the contrary, some of them 
being encouraged by others, who till then had 
not been of this society, being also grieved at 
heart to see some of their brethren turn their 
backs in the day of battle ; and being animated 
with holy zeal against the growing interests of 



48 



CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



Popery, which then appeared, not only open, but 
in armour ; they took a more vigorous resolution 
than ever, to do what in them lay towards the 
maintaining" and increasing the purity and 
power of religion in themselves and others. 
And seeing that the Popish Mass was then 
publicly celebrated, not only at the royal chapel, 
but in other public places, they set up, at their 
own expense, public prayers every evening, at 
eight of the clock, at St. Clement Danes, which 
never wanted a full and affectionate congrega- 
tion. And not long after, they set up an even- 
ing monthly lecture in the same church, to con- 
firm communicants in their holy purposes and 
vows, which they had made at the Lord's table. 
And by this lecture, which was greatly fre- 
quented, many were confirmed, both in the pro- 
fession and practice of the true principles of pri- 
mitive religion. For they were preached by the 
most eminent divines about the city, from whose 
lips and pens Popery received such wounds, as 
all her art will never be able to cure." .... 
"This their constancy, piety, and good service to 
the public, in so hazardous a juncture, made them 
more known, and much esteemed, at the begin- 
ning of the reign of King William and Queen 
Mary ; those instruments of God's providence, 
for the restoring of our religion and liberty, when 
the public enjoyment of both were just expiring.' 




< 



WITH THE CLERGY. 49 

<( It is the practice of all these societies to 
partake of the Holy Supper of our Lord, as 
frequently as they may, thereby to devote them- 
selves afresh to their good Master, and to con- 
firm their purposes of perpetual service to him, 
and as a means of receiving spiritual strength 
from him so to do. And in order to their more 
advised preparations for so solemn a work, there is 
in some one church or more of this city, a sermon 
preached every Lord's day, in the evening, (by 
the procurement of some of these societies,) on 
the important subject of due preparation for the 
Lord's table, and a meet deportment after it; 
by which great good has been done, and a deep 
sense of religion wrought in many persons. And 
by this their care to acquit their consciences as 
to this last command of our dying Lord, many 
of them have, through the grace of God, attained 
to that excellent primitive temper of frequent 
communicating, without growing formal, not 
lessening a due reverence by the frequency of 
it." 

" Their manner of disbursing their bounty to 
sick and distressed people, is such as renders 
it a double benefit ; for they usually send their 
alms by the hands of two or more of their most 
serious members, who make a personal inquiry 
into their necessities, and usually introduce 
some seasonable discourse, suitable to the aftlic- 

D 



50 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

tion of the person or family which they relieve, 
which many times proves the better charity of 
the two. For the poor afflicted persons, being 
partly awakened by the rod of God upon them, 
and being surprised by such a visit and bounty 
from persons unknown to them, and not a little 
pleased to hear such savoury speeches drop 
from the lips of such young persons ; all these 
things together have sometimes been happily in- 
strumental in propagating a sense of religion in 
some persons, who scarce ever before felt any 
thing of it ; and of exciting it where it had 
before taken place." 

The "Account of the Societies for Refor- 
mation of Manners in England and Ireland," 
contained the following description of the " Re- 
ligious Societies." " There are about nine and 
thirty Religious Societies of another kind, in 
and about London and Westminster, which are 
propagated into other parts of the nation ; as 
Nottingham, Gloucester, &c. and even into 
Ireland, where they have been for some months 
since spreading in divers towns and cities of 
that kingdom; as Kilkenny, Drogheda, Man- 
nouth, &c. especially in Dublin, where there 
are about ten of these Societies, which are pro- 
moted by the bishops and inferior clergy there. 
These persons meet often to pray, sing Psalms, 
and read the Holy Scriptures together, and 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



51 



to reprove, exhort, and edify one another by 
their religious conferences. They moreover 
carry on at their meetings designs of charity 
of different kinds ; such as relieving the wants 
of poor housekeepers, maintaining their children 
at school, setting of prisoners at liberty, support- 
ing of lectures and daily prayers in our churches. 
These are the societies which our late gracious 
Queen,* as the learned Bishop f that hath writ 
an essay on her memory tells us, took so great 
satisfaction in, ' that she enquired often and 
much about them, and was glad they went on 
and prevailed.' And these, like- 
wise, are Societies that have proved so exceed- 
ingly serviceable in the work of reformation, 
that they may be reckoned a chief support to 
it; as the late Archbishop Tillotson declared 
upon several occasions, after he had examined 
their orders and enquired into their lives, that 
he thought they were to the Church of Eng- 
land." 

Dr. Woodward's account contains the follow- 
ing further particulars. " Their religious fra- 
ternities grew and increased, even till they be- 
came conspicuous, and in some degree famous ; 

* Mary II. Queen of William III. 
f Bishop Burnet. 

d2 



52 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

which still induced other young men, who were 
of sober inclinations, to join with them ; and as 
they multiplied in distant parts of the city they 
erected new societies by the pattern of the old. 
This conspicuous advancement of these socie- 
ties, in number and repute, gave occasion to 
some mistaken or ill-affected persons to misre- 
present them to the bishop, as things leading to 
schism, spiritual pride, and many other ill con- 
sequences. And this made their names more 
public than ever they thought or desired to have 
them. For now they were obliged to appear 
and justify their undertaking: which they did 
in a very humble and solid apology addressed 
to the Bishop of London ; wherein they humbly 
assured his Lordship, that their only design 
was to quicken each other's affections towards 
spiritual things, and to advance their prepara- 
tions for another world ; and to this end to assist 
each other to live in all respects as it becometh 
the Gospel : and that they desired to prosecute 
this Christian design in none but Christian 
methods; with due respect to their superiors 
in church and state, and without any cause 
of offence to any one. And, in fine, their vindi- 
cation appeared so reasonable and satisfactory, 
their assemblies so regular and subordinate 
to the public worship, and their designs so truly 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



53 



Christian and inoffensive, (all which was at- 
tested by several eminent divines on their be- 
half,) that his Lordship dismissed them with 
these words ; ' God forbid that I should be 
against such excellent designs.' " 



54 



CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



CHAP. IV. 



, BENEFITS RESULTING FROM THE CO-OPERATION OF 
THE LAITY WITH THE CLERGY, IN PAROCHIAL 
AND DISTRICT VISITING ASSOCIATIONS. 

Sect. 1. The alleviation of the wants of the 
destitute, and amelioration of their temporal 
condition, a benefit resulting from the co-opera- 
tion of the Laity with the Clergy in Parochial 
and District Visiting Associations. 

Prior to the era of the Reformation, indis- 
criminate charity, in portions of food bestowed 
on beggars at the gates of monasteries, must 
have had the effect of multiplying the number 
of those, who, without attaching themselves to 
constant labour for support, were disposed to 
live dependent upon others. This mistaken 
charity became the root of many evils. It in- 
creased idleness and pauperism, and the fruit 
of idleness and pauperism was an increase of 
crime. The monasteries having been dissolved 
by Henry VIII. and the resource of the idle, 
as well as of the suffering and deserving poor, 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



55 



in that quarter abolished ; the miseries of a very 
numerous class excited the attention of the 
Legislature, and a legal provision for the poor, 
by rates levied on their respective parishes, was 
established in the reign of Elizabeth. 

Accumulating facts have since proved, un- 
happily, that the legal provision for the poor 
thus instituted, though perhaps absolutely neces- 
sary from want of adequate charity on the part 
of the opulent, and of visiting distributors of 
alms, has been long the oppressive burden 
of England. Improvidence and other evils, the 
natural consequences of such a regularly autho- 
rized supply for the wants of destitute appli- 
cants, have been fearfully widened and enlarged 
by numerous abuses, by expensive litigation, 
and, in country villages, by the unjustifiable 
practice adopted by farmers of adding a sum 
from the poor's rate to the able-bodied la- 
bourer's low wages, instead of paying him that 
full sum to which he was entitled for his work, 
in the form of fair wages. 

Now the establishment of Parochial Visiting 
Associations, promises to be one of the most 
effectual means of diminishing the evils which 
are thus found to flow from our Poor Laws. 
That investigation which visiting involves, will 
afford ample opportunities for stimulating the 
idle to exert themselves, instead of seeking 



56 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

relief too readily from the parish; for per- 
suading the improvident to economize, and 
place part of their money in Savings Banks; 
and not only for checking the tendency to 
crime from present distress, but of inculcating 
upon adults those Christian principles, and 
infusing the same principles into their children 
in Sunday schools which they may be urged 
to attend, which are among the best preserva- 
tives from a career of vice and immorality. 
Thus, whilst Societies for the suppression of 
mendicity are too much required in cities, 
Visiting Associations would, by degrees, ope- 
rate to the prevention of mendicity itself. 

Viewed under this aspect, is it possible to 
attach too great importance to the formation of 
such Visiting Associations ? It may be added, 
that by the efforts of visiting members, modest 
unobtrusive worth will be, in numerous in- 
stances, discovered and relieved : and reduced 
persons, who would be exceedingly reluctant to 
apply to a parish, will partake of comforts of 
which they greatly stand in need.* On th 

* An excellent specimen of the benefits which mem- 
bers of Visiting Associations may bestow upon aged and 
reduced persons, is afforded by a " Friendly Female 
Society" in London, of which Miss Vansittart is Presi- 
dent, and which extends its care to widows and spinsters 
who have seen better days, and who are above sixty 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



57 



other hand, many other persons, destitute of the 
good principles and conduct displayed by those 
just alluded to, yet equally in need of relief, 
equally averse to make their necessities known 
to parish officers, would meet with attentions, 
and consolatory counsels, peculiarly suitable to 
their condition ; whilst neglect would be too apt 
to produce in such characters a harassing dis- 
content, a bold recklessness, perhaps a gloomy 
despair, which might issue in the most affecting 
and direful results. 

It is, indeed, worthy of deep consideration, 
and fair and ample trial, by way of experiment, 
whether such Associations, prudently organized 
in particular districts, may not be able, ulti- 
mately, to obviate the necessity of continuing 
the relief of the poor, according to the present 
pernicious system of poor laws in England. 
With this view, I apprehend that the members 
of such Associations should afford relief to those 
persons only who, when in health, gained their 
livelihood by honest industry, and without re- 
ceiving an allowance from the poor's rates ; 
and who are contributors to a Savings Bank, 
and members of a well regulated Benefit or 



years of age. The Visiting Members are ladies. Five 
hundred females are relieved with money. There is also 
an asylum for twenty, as resident inmates. 

d3 



58 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Friendly Society. The temporary relief af- 
forded to such persons in seasons of distress, by 
a charitable Association, would enable them 
still to continue their little stock in the Savings 
Bank, and would be a very useful addition to 
the allowance in sickness from the Friendly 
Society ; which allowance should be moderate in 
seasons of sickness, and principally reserved for 
the members when labouring- under the infir- 
mities of advanced life. 

" The truth is," observes Dr. Chalmers,* 
" that there is a far greater sufficiency among 
the lower classes of Society than is generally 
imagined ; and our first impressions of their 
want and wretchedness are generally by much 
too aggravated : nor do we know a more effec- 
tual method of reducing these impressions, than 
to cultivate a closer acquaintance with their 
resources, and their habits, and their whole do- 
mestic economy. It is certainly in the power 
of artificial expedients to create artificial de- 
sires, and to call out a host of applications that 
would never have otherwise been made. And we 
know of nothing that leads more directly and 
more surely to this state of things, than a great 
regular provision for indigence, obtruded, with 
all the characters of legality, and certainty, 



* Christian and Civil Economy, pp. 271—273. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 59 

and abundance, upon the notice of the people. 
But wherever the securities which nature hath 
established for the relief and mitigation of ex- 
treme distress are not so tampered with ; where 
the economy of individuals, and the sympathy 
of neighbours, and a sense of the relative duties 
among kinsfolk, are left, without disturbance, 
to their own silent and simple operation ; it 
will be found that there is nothing so formidable 
in the work of traversing a whole mass of con- 
gregated human beings, and of encountering 
all the clamours, whether of real or of fictitious 
necessity, that may be raised by our appearance 
amongst them We know not, in- 

deed, how any one can be made more effec- 
tually to see, with his own eyes, the super- 
fluousness of all public and legalized charity, 
than just to assume a district, and become the 
familiar friend of the people who live in it, and 
to do for them the thousand nameless olfices of 
Christian regard, and to encourage, in every 
judicious and inoffensive way, their dependence 
upon themselves, and their fellow-feeling one 
for another." 

Such are that able author's remarks on the 
means of affording relief to the distressed poor.* 

* In the Appendix, No. III., I have inserted remarks 
on the advantages that may he expected from Visiting 
Associations in Ireland, — a country where poor's rates 
are not established. 



60 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Even should it happen, as it sometimes will, 
that comparatively few persons possess suffi- 
cient leisure, or will take sufficient pains to 
benefit their fellow- creatures in the way de- 
scribed ; still even small associations, com- 
posed of few persons, may, by judicious arrange- 
ments and cheerful perseverance, effect much 
in the large parishes of a populous city. Dr. 
Chalmers has well argued this point in refer- 
ence to the metropolis. 

" It is rash to affirm of the local system, that 
it is totally impracticable in London ; whil 
most natural, at the same time, that it should 
appear so to those who think nothing worthy of 
an attempt, unless it can be done per saltum, — 
unless it at once fills the eye with the glare of 
magnificence, and it can be invested, at the 
very outset, with all the pomp and patronage 
of extensive committeeship. A single lane, 
or court, in London, is surely not more imprac- 
ticable than in other towns of this empire 
There is one man to be found there, who can 
assume it as his locality, and acquit himself 
thoroughly, and well of the duties which it lays 
upon him. There is another who can pitch 
beside him, on a contiguous settlement, and, 
without feeling bound to speculate for the 
whole metropolis, can pervade, and do much 
to purify his assumed portion of it. There is 
a third, who will find that a walk so unnoticed 



WITH THE CLERGY. 61 

and obscure, is the best suited to his modesty ; 
and a fourth, who will be eager to reap, on the 
same field, that reward of kind and simple 
gratitude, in which his heart is most fitted to 
rejoice. We are sure that this piece-meal 
operation will not stop for want of labourers, — 
though it may be arrested, for a while, through 
the eye of labourers being seduced by the 
meteoric glare of other enterprises, alike im- 
potent and imposing. So long as each man of 
mediocrity conceives himself to be a man of 
might, and sighs after some scene of enlarge- 
ment that may be adequate to his fancied 
powers, little or nothing will be done ; but so 
soon as the sweeping and sublime imagination 
is dissipated, and he can stoop to the drudgery 
of his small allotment in the field of usefulness, 
then will it be found, how it is by the summa- 
tion of many humble mediocrities, that a mighty 
result is at length arrived at. It was by suc- 
cessive strokes of the pick-axe and the chisel, 
that the pyramids of Egypt were reared : and 
great must be the company of workmen, and 
limited the task which each must occupy, ere 
there will be made to ascend the edifice of a 
nation's worth, or of a nation's true great- 
ness." * 



* Christian and Civic Economy, pp. 353, 354. 



62 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Sect. 2. — The consolation of the sick and 
afflicted, a benefit resulting from the co-opera- 
tion of the Laity with the Clergy in Parochial 
and District Visiting Associations. 

Amongst the various classes of the poor, 
the sick have an obvious and urgent claim 
upon the attention of members of Visiting 
Associations. Their tenderest sympathies will 
be excited by the condition of suffering fellow- 
creatures, perhaps soon about to leave the pre- 
sent for the future world. In small parishes 
the Clergyman visits, of course, every sick 
individual ; but in large parishes, it is evident, 
that neither his time nor his strength permit 
him to accomplish this task, consistently with 
his various other duties. The resource that 
remains, is to invite the co-operation of those 
of the laity, ladies, gentlemen, respectable 
tradesmen, &c, who have sufficient leisure, 
good judgment, and piety to assist him. With 
such assistance he may hope that no cases of 
sickness will escape notice ; that adequate reli- 
gious instruction and consolation will not be 
withheld from any ; and that the more affect- 
ing cases, requiring his personal attention, will 
be laid before him by his assistants. 

The service of thus visiting the sick ap- 
pears obviously to require riper age in the 
Laity who undertake it, than that of teaching 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



63 



children in Sunday schools. Sunday school 
teachers may often consist of young persons, 
from the age of fifteen or sixteen, and upwards, 
whose personal knowledge and piety may be 
increased, and their best feelings drawn forth, 
whilst engaged in the benevolent task of in- 
structing those younger than themselves; but 
visitors of the sick ought to possess maturity 
of judgment, and an age that implies solemnity 
of deportment, suitable to the affecting cir- 
cumstances of the chamber of sickness and of 
death. 

The good effects of reading to the sick poor, 
will greatly depend upon the choice of passages 
of Scripture adapted to the condition of the 
sick, and the state of their minds. 

The passages that have appeared to me pecu- 
liarly appropriate, I venture to subjoin for the 
consideration, and adoption, if approved, of mem- 
bers of Visiting Associations ; and shall be happy 
if they should be found useful as a guide in 
their truly Christian enterprise, of attempting 
to instruct and console their fellow-creatures in 
the season of sickness and at the approach of 
death. 

(1.) The following passages shew for what 
purpose and end the Almighty afflicts the chil- 
dren of men 



6*1 



CO OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



Job, chaps. v. and xxxvi. 
Psalm cvii. 
Ecclesiastes vii. 
Isaiah lvii. 

Jeremiah xxxvi. verses 18, 19, 20. 
Lamentations iii. 

(2.) The following passages allude to the 
frailty of our mortal nature ; and sin as the 
source of all our sorrows and pains. 

Genesis iii. 
Job xiv. 
Ecclesiastes xii. 
Isaiah xl. ver. 1 — 11. 

(3.) The following passages, which describe 
the power displayed by our Saviour in healing 
all manner of sickness, may be read with profit, 
although no miraculous interposition can be now 
expected. 

St. Matthew viii. ver. 1—17. 
St. Mark ii. ver. 1—17. 

v. ver. 25—34. 

vii. ver. 24 — 37. 

x. ver. 46—52. 
St. John iv. ver. 43—54. 

v. 



(4.) The following passages relate to the 
sufferings and death of Christ to purchase for- 
giveness of sins for mankind. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



65 



Isaiah liii. 

St. Matthew xxvii. 

St. Luke xxii. ver. 39—46. 

xxiii. 
St. John x. 

xix. 

(5.) The following passages strongly urge 
persons to avoid wilful sin, that they may 
escape from the punishment due for trans- 
gression. 

Psalm 1. 

Ezekiel xxxvi. ver. 22 — 27. 
St. Matthew iii. 
St. Luke x 

xii. ver. 15 — 21. 

(6.) The following- passages display the wil- 
lingness of the Almighty to receive penitent 
sinners into his favour. 

Job xxxiii. 
Isaiah lv. 

Ezekiel xxxiii. ver. 1—19. 
Micah vi. 

vii. 

(7.) The following passages explain how God 
can be just, even when he justifies and forgives 
penitent offenders. 

Jeremiah xxxi. ver. 31 — 34. 

Acts xiii. 
Romans iii. 



66 



CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



Galatians iii. 
Ephesians ii. 
Titus iii. 
Hebrews ix. 

x. ver. 1 — 25. 
1st Ep. St. John i. 

(8.) The following passages are calculated 
to relieve the minds of truly penitent persons, 
who are fearful that they shall not obtain for- 
giveness. 

St. Luke vii. ver. 36—50. 
xv. 

St. John iv. 
Acts ii. 

iii. 

xvi. 
1 Timothy i. 

(9.) The following passages shew, that sanc- 
tif cation and obedience are inseparably con- 
nected with a well grounded hope of forgive- 
ness. 

Ezekiel xi. ver. 14 — 21. 

St. Luke xi. ver. 5 — 13. 

2 Corinthians vi. ver. 11 — 18. 
Ephesians v. ver. 1—20. 

Philippians iii. 
IstEp. St. Peter i. 
1st Ep. St. John iii. 

(10.) The following passages exhibit the ag- 
gravated guilt of those who neglect the salva- 
tion revealed by the Gospel. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



67 



St. Mark xvi. 

St. John iii. 
Romans ii. 
Hebrews iii. 

iv. 

x. ver. 26—39. 
Revelation ii. 

iii. 
xxii. 

(11.) The following passages represent that 
awful day of judgment which awaits every 
human being, and should, therefore, rouse the 
thoughtless from their slumbers. 

St. Matthew xxv. 

1 Thessalonians iv. 

v. 

2 Thessalonians i. 
2dEp.St. Peter iii. 
Revelation i. 

(12.) The following passages prove, that 
sickness is a blessing, and that sufferings are 
pledges of love, to the true servants of God and 
disciples of Christ. 

Isaiah xxv. 

xx vi. 
2 Corinthians iv. 

v. ver. 1 — 9. 
Hebrews xii. 

(13.) The following passages are proper for 
the perusal of those sick persons who wish to 
receive the sacrament. 



68 



CO-OPERATIOX OF THE LAITY 



Exodus xii. ver. 1 — 28. 

St. Luke xxii 
St. John vi. 
1 Corinthians x. 

(14.) The following Paalms are suitable for 
sick jiersons, as occasional prayers. 

vi. Ixxvii. 

xxv. Ixxxviii. 
xxxii. xc. 
xxxviii. cxxx. 
xxxix cxliii. 
li. 

(15.) The following passages are proper for 
use during the progress of recovery from sick- 
ness. 

Isaiah xxxviii. 
St. Matthew xiii. 
St. Luke xvii. 
Hebrews x. 

And Psalms xxx.; ciii. ; cxvi. ;* cxix. 

I close this head by remarking^ that the 
domiciliary visits of benevolent persons, acting 
as the assistants of their Clergyman, are likely 
not only to convey a fund of religious know- 
ledge to many sick persons, previously ignorant, 
and, by God's blessing upon their efforts, pre- 

* The 116th Psalm is well adapted for use, as at 
other times, so especially on the first Sunday that a 
person recovered from sickness attends a place of wor- 
ship. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



69 



pare some before death for eternity ; but to 
induce many after their recovery to attend 
regularly at their place of worship, and thus 
bring them under those public, and more effec- 
tive means of grace, which they may have too 
habitually neglected. 

Sect. 3. — The instruction of the ignorant 
of the adult population , a henejit resulting from 
the co-operation of the Laity with the Clergy 
in Parochial and District Visiting Associations. 

Although the present age has been charac- 
terized by no ordinary degree of zeal in the 
education of the children of the poor, the in- 
structing of the adult poor themselves, whose 
education had been neglected in early life, 
has engaged comparatively little attention. It 
is, however, an object of incalculable impor- 
tance ; involving as it does, in a great mea- 
sure, not merely a higher degree of rational 
enjoyment in the present transitory life ; but 
their eternal happiness also in that world to 
which they are hastening. Nor can I forbear 
adding, that the zeal with which missionaries 
in foreign lands instruct, and pagan adults 
receive instruction, reproves, in a stronger 
manner than language can, Clergymen and 
people in many parishes of this Christian coun- 
try. 



70 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Where this great object has been taken up 
in good earnest, and vigorously prosecuted, 
the efforts of those who engaged in it have 
been often crowned with the happiest results. 
Thus, when a Clergyman of Wales, the Rev. 
Griffith Jones, and another Clergyman more 
recently, the Rev. T. Charles, cherished the 
benevolent enterprise, it was followed by ample 
success.^ In reference to a Protestant district 
in France, which I once visited, — that of the 
Ban de la Roche, — I can also state, that 
whilst it comprises 4000 souls scattered in five 
different villages, such was the assiduity of the 
pastor, M. Oberlin, and his predecessor, M. 
Stuber, that not one adult individual, M. 
Oberlin's son-in-law assured me, could be found, 
who was unable to read the Holy Scriptures. 
Such an example presents a fine model for 
imitation ; but it may be feared, that no parish 
containing an equal number of souls exists in 
England, where every adult individual has been 
so completely instructed ; indeed, it is probable, 
that in the majority of those villages which 
contain only 400, education has not reached 

* Their efforts were chiefly amongst the poor in 
country villages, who are not so immediately the objects 
of attention to members of visiting associations : but as 
a further account of those efforts may he deemed in- 
teresting, and cannot but be highly encouraging, I have 
inserted it in the Appendix, No. IV. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



71 



this point.* The subject now in hand, how- 
ever, refers to thickly-peopled parishes, not 
small country villages ; I therefore forbear to 
enter into a full discussion of the means of 
improving the condition of the latter ; and ob- 
serve, that the following classes of adults re- 
quire peculiar attention. 

(1.) Prisoners. — The great increase of crime 
within the last few years, has been already 
alluded to. It appears to me, that the attention 
of members of Visiting Associations may be very 
properly directed, with the permission of the 
magistrates and chaplains, to the inmates of 
our gaols, whether adult criminals, or debtors, 
or juvenile delinquents. If members of such 
associationsf should succeed in establishing a 
system of Christian instruction amongst the 
unhappy male inmates of our prisons during 
the time of their confinement, as Mrs. Fry and 
other benevolent ladies have done amongst 
women ; teaching the ignor?nt to read ; mildly 
explaining the principles and precepts of Chris- 
tianity ; and exhorting the prisoners to submit 

* In Appendix, No. V. will be found an easy 
method of teaching adults to read. 

t On the 4th May, 1830, the Bishop of Quebec, 
addressing the Diocesan Committee, stated that a 
gaol association had been formed for promoting educa- 
tion, industry, and moral improvement among pri- 
soners. 



72 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

to their influence; the happiest consequences 
might follow ; and it is probable that many, 
when again thrown into the mass of society, 
would avoid those vicious courses for which 
they had already suffered in some degree, and 
which, if persisted in, might expose them to 
the heavier penalties of the laws.* 

2. Sailoi's. — Whilst describing the benefit 
that in this respect may be conferred upon adults, 
I ought nov to omit to notice a valuable, but 
much neglected class of men, to whom the 
attention of visitors ought, in some instances, 

* In order to deter prisoners from a repetition of 
crime, two of the most effectual methods, next to the 
due classification of prisoners, appear to be (1) the 
accustoming them to work at a trade, (reserving for them 
part of the profits of the work to encourage them,) that 
when they leave prison they may be the more readily 
induced to pursue a course of industry ; (2) the. teach- 
ing the ignorant to read the Scriptures, and persuading 
them to pay deference to the doctrines and maxims 
they reveal. The preaching of a suitable chaplain at 
proper seasons should, of course, be a regular source 
of religious instruction. There is, however, a per- 
nicious and delusive practice, (founded on a mistake 
in religion, and derived apparently from the Church of 
Rome,) that of administering the Sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper to criminals before execution. All the 
promises of forgiveness to the truly penitent should be 
stated to them ; but the participation of that Holy 
Sacrament, whilst it cannot save, may deceive their 
souls, and be regarded as a passport to heaven, and a 
seal of salvation. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



73 



to be especially directed. I allude to the 
sailors on board of merchant ships. * They are 
entitled to attention, because their laborious 
efforts largely contribute to the prosperity of 
Great Britain as a maritime country. They 
are entitled likewise, because the very nature 
of their occupation exposes them to frequent, 
indeed almost constant privations in respect to 
public religious privileges and ordinances, — 
to peculiar trials and temptations on the score 
of morality, — and to imminent perils of life, 
however unprepared for eternity, on their own 
boisterous element. 

Of late years an honourable solicitude for 
the welfare of this important class of men has 
induced many charitable persons to establish 
" Floating Chapels," for seamen on the Thames, 
and on a few other rivers; and in the port of 
London the following humane establishments 
have been formed for their preservation from 
the snares of the profligate and designing. 

1. The " Destitute Sailor's Asylum," near 
the London Docks. 

* Seamen in the Royal Navy are under the more 
immediate care of chaplains, and men of war are there- 
fore apparently out of the sphere of Lay visitors. 
The numerous class of watermen, and bargemen, on 
rivers and canals, however, claim, on various accounts, 
that attention which is urged above in reference to 
seamen in merchant ships. 

E 



74 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



2. The " Sailor's Home, or Brunswick Mari- 
time Establishment." 

The " Prayer Book and Homily Society" 
likewise frequently sends a Visitor to supply 
the sailors of merchants' ships with Prayer 
Books and Homilies. 

By means of such humane and religious Insti- 
tutions, (if liberally supported,) many unhappy 
sailors will be protected, in some degree, in 
future, from fraud and distress, and raised 
from degrading ignorance to a moderate share 
of Christian knowledge. Still, all this forms 
but the commencement, on a small scale, of that 
great attempt which a Christian maritime na- 
tion should make for the religious benefit of 
seamen : and more especially does it seem in- 
cumbent upon clergymen, who have the care of 
parishes which include a sea-faring population, 
to provide that men of suitable age and discre- 
tion shall, from time to time, visit vessels when 
in harbour, ascertain what should be done to 
advance the temporal and spiritual benefit of 
the crews, furnish such clergymen with reports, 
and act under their advice and superintendence. 
By such kindness, many in the harbours around 
our coasts, may be supplied with suitable books 
of devotion ; many, if unable to read, induced to 
attend an adult sailors' school ; and many who 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



To 



have habitually neglected divine worship, suc- 
cessfully urged to come to church. 

(3.) Miners. — Another very numerous class of 
men to whom the offices of Visitors are parti- 
cularly applicable, is that of miners, in those dis- 
tricts of the kingdom where iron, coal, and other 
minerals, have brought together a large body 
of workmen, and their families. To the dis- 
advantages which attend these persons, in a 
religious view, in those hilly districts of South 
Wales which lie within the diocese of Llandaff, 
the Lord Bishop of that diocese (now Bishop 
of Winchester) has referred, in a very striking 
and affecting manner, in his Charge of 1827. 
The subject is one that has a direct bearing 
upon various other parts of the united kingdom, 
In many instances, the mineral wealth of a tract 
of country has led to the formation of populous 
villages, so remote from the ancient parish 
church as to be wholly precluded from the official 
attentions of the incumbent, and where, conse- 
quently, the erection of new churches or chapels 
of ease is imperiously required without delay. 
In other instances, the great increase of a 
mining population may have taken place in the 
immediate neighbourhood of an ancient church 
and village ; where, according to circumstances, 
a new chapel of ease may or may not be re- 
quired. In all such instances, however, the 

e2 



70 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



effective labours of a Visiting Association 
must be wanted as auxiliary to the personal 
labours of the clergy. The activity of such 
benevolent assistants to the parish minister will 
be found one of the best means of preserving 
adults within the pale of the established church, 
persuading them to avail themselves of its or- 
dinances, and inducing them to send their 
children to imbibe the elements of Christian 
knowledge in daily and Sunday schools, 
in which its principles are inculcated. For 
these reasons, as well as on account of the va- 
rious benefits, temporal and spiritual, attendant 
on so charitable a ministration, it appears to be 
of the highest importance, that the claims of 
miners and their families should be met by ener- 
getic efforts on the part of the members of Paro- 
chial and District Visiting Associations. 

(4.) Manufacturers —It remains that I allude 
to a fourth class of persons, that of our manufac- 
turers, who, like those classes already described, 
sailors and miners, have risen, in connexion 
with the vast commercial enterprise which has 
become a principal national feature of this 
realm, into a population extremely numerous ; 
collected into dense masses in particular dis- 
tricts ; exposed in consequence to peculiar temp- 
tations ; less easily managed than if scattered ; 
and, at the same time, for want of an adequate 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



77 



number of churches, deprived in part of reli- 
gious privileges, and withdrawn from the con- 
troul of the parochial clergy. 

The manufacturing population of our country, 
whether in prosperity or adversity, stands in 
urgent need of that vigilant attention which 
can only be administered effectually by mem- 
bers of Visiting Associations ; in prosperity, 
to correct their improvident and careless habits 
of life, and the strong temptation to consume in 
pernicious inebriating liquors much of the 
wages earned by industry ; in adversity, to meet 
and supply their wants, and reduce that tone of 
discontent which often assumes even a form of 
disloyalty and turbulence. Instead of expa- 
tiating, however, at any length on this topic, 
I shall do more justice to the subject, by ex- 
tracting a few paragraphs from the Charge 
of a Prelate,* whose diocese includes so large a 
portion of the manufacturing class of our fellow 
subjects, and whose pastoral solicitude has been 
therefore directed to their relief. 

Pourtraying, in contrast, the misery attendant 
on an individual destitute of religious princi- 
ples, yet, from external circumstances, in the 
greatest need of them; and the same individual 

* A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of 
Chester, at the Primary Visitation in 1829, by the 
Right Rev. John Bird, Lord Bishop of Chester. 



78 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

when, by divine grace, brought under the influ- 
ence of religion; the Bishop writes— 

" Compare the ignorant and unreflecting pea- 
sant, who moves in the same dull, and too often 
sinful track, with no ideas beyond the ground 
he treads upon, the sensual indulgences which 
he gratifies, and the day that is passing over his 
head : compare him with his enlightened neigh- 
bour, nay, with himself, if happily he becomes 
enlightened, when he follows the same path of 
active industry, but makes it a path towards 
his heavenly Father's kingdom : and then per- 
ceive, by a visible example, what the grace of 
God effects through the agency of man. Or 

take a case, too common, alas! .... 

take the case of those who see their occupation 
sinking from under them ; their means of sup- 
port annually decreasing, and little prospect 
of its melioration. Suppose that the views of 
these, and such as these, are bounded by this 
present world, what can they be but unhappy, 
restless, discontented : defying God, and mur- 
muring at man: distressing the philanthropist, 
because he sees no comfort left to them; dis- 
tressing the statesman, because he can devise 
no remedy for their relief ; above all, distressing 
the Christian, who sees the future prospect far 
darker than the present gloom. Suppose the 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



79 



case of one thus circumstanced, having no 
hope beyond this world : and then contemplate 
the change which would be produced, if any of 
the means by which grace is communicated 
to the heart, should inspire the same person 
with the principles and the faith of the Gospel; 
converting him from whatever is evil in his 
ways, and thus removing all the accumulation 
which sin adds to poverty; reconciling him 
to hardships and privations, as the intended 
trial of his faith, the lot of many of God's most 
approved servants: and lighting up the dark- 
ness of this world by the rays which precede 
that which is to come, the earnest of a brighter 
dawn : compare, I pray, these two pictures, 
and then admire with me, for what can be more 
worthy of your admiration, the blessing which 
God designed for man ; and deplore with me, 
for what more deserves your lamentation, the 
blindness of man, who refuses the good and 
keeps to himself the evil ; and resolve with me, 
for there is need of your resolution, that as far 
as in you lies, you will make the mercies of God 
available, and disseminate those principles 
which exalt the low, and enrich the poor, 
which teach men to ' rejoice even in tribula- 
tion,' and render a Lazarus the object of envy 
to a Dives." 



80 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Contemplating adversity as the probable lot 
of those engaged in various branches of trade, 
the Bishop proceeds : 

" Circumstances are at work in every part of 
this country, not more affecting its manufac- 
turing than its agricultural population, which 
leave little to expect for a large proportion of 
its inhabitants, except hardships and difficulties. 
Religion is not more really necessary to these, 
than it is to every man. But those are more 
evidently destitute without it, who in this world 
4 have evil things.' And further, it is the only 
remedy which we can offer. Mitigation there 
may be, assistance there may be : but effec- 
tual remedy there is none other. What- 
ever comfort can be bestowed, must proceed 
from religion ; whatever temporal improvement 
can accrue, must proceed from religion. For 
all the evils we lament, are increased by impru- 
dence, intemperance, malice, violence ; and re- 
ligion teaches foresight, moderation, patience, 
and contentment : and alas ! because it does so, 
as if the natural enmity of the human heart did 
not afford sufficient obstacle, it is opposed by 
the influence of all who make a gain of other 

men's ungodliness My firm belief 

is, that if our beloved country retains its great- 
ness and its comforts, they will be preserved to 
her by religion alone. And of religion, the 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



81 



principal instruments must always be the paro- 
chial clergy." 

Lastly, describing the great importance of 
employing the Laity as co-operators with the 
Clergy, in improving the condition of the poor, 
the Bishop observes : " Certainly in our larger 
parishes, it is not possible for the strength or 
activity of the clergy alone to provide for such 
individual instruction. But there is a resource 
at hand; when the population is moderate, 
nothing is wanting but resolution and con- 
trivance ; and in the case of a denser popula- 
tion, the bane and the antidote, the evil and the 
remedy, are found together. The same popula- 
tion which presses so heavily upon the clergy- 
man, afFords also the variety of ranks, and de- 
gree of superior education, that many fellow- 
workers may assist the minister, and diminish 
his labours. In this manner the Apostles were 
enabled to execute the manifold concerns which 
lay upon them. . . We find that there were 
persons, who, though not apostles, not commis- 
sioned to preach the Gospel, were yet employed 
in many ways connected with it. St. Paul 
speaks of them as his ' helpers in Christ Je- 
sus as * labouring much in the Lord ; as 
• labouring with him in the Lord.' .... 
The Apostles then, however above succeeding 
ministers in their endowments, were like them 

e 3 



82 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

in other respects ; and because, in bodily 
strength, they were but men, and their day, 
like ours, was limited in its duration, they em- 
braced such means of assistance in their various 
labours as came within their power. They 
have left us an example. Let the minister of a 
populous district, using careful discrimination of 
character, select such as ' are worthy,' and ' of 
good report,' and assign them their several em- 
ployments under his direction ; they may lessen 
his own labour, by visiting and examining the 
schools, by reading and praying with the infirm 
and aged, by consoling the fatherless and widows 
in their affliction, and pursuing the many name- 
less ways by which it is in the power of one 
Christian to benefit and relieve another. . . 
"What image more exemplifying the reality of 
pastoral care, what more truly Christian picture 
can be presented to our contemplation, than 
that of a minister uniting with himself the best 
disposed, and the most competent portion of his 
parishioners, and superintending counsels, and 
directing plans which have God for their object, 
and the eternal welfare of his people for their 
end ; seizing every opportunity of general and 
individual good, correcting mischiefs at their first 
rising, providing for the spiritual wants of every 
different age and class, and thus striving, as far 
as may be allowed, ' to present every man per- 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



83 



feet in Christ Jesus.' . . . Nor is this any 
visionary notion ; pleasing in idea, but imprac- 
ticable in reality. Numerous parishes, of diffe- 
rent degrees of population, have been brought 
under such discipline, with more or less success. 
And I feel convinced, that whoever is anxious 
to promote the glory of God, to assist the most 
important interests of his fellow-creatures, to 
confirm the security of his country, or maintain 
the stability of his church, can ensure none of 
those great objects more effectually than by 
means like these. Without them, in some of 
our crowded districts of dense and extended 
population, the church is lost sight of, parochial 
distinctions are obliterated, and the reciprocal 
charities and duties of the pastor and the flock 
are forgotten by the people, because it is physi- 
cally impossible that they should be satisfacto- 
rily discharged/' 

Sect. 4. — The furtherance of the Educa- 
tion of Children, a benefit resulting from the 
Co-operation of the Laity xcith the Clergy, in 
Parochial and District Visiting Associations, 

It has already, I hope, appeared that a Paro- 
chial or District Visiting Association becomes 
readily the instrument of effecting many im- 
portant purposes. It is a current of beneficence 
that at once reminds me of that copious stream, 

E 4 



84 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

or small river, which, issuing from the bowels of 
the earth in prodigious quantity, at Holywell, 
in Flintshire, no sooner begins to flow, than 
it confers important benefits, and in its short 
and unambitious course, turns first the wheels 
of one manufactory, then those of another, 
afterwards those of several others in succession, 
before it ceases to be a distinct stream, and 
loses itself in the river Dee. It is not easy, in 
fact, to assign limits to the utility of such well- 
regulated associations ; and under the present 
head, I shall attempt to prove that they may be 
of essential service towards promoting the edu- 
cation of children — the children of the lower 
classes. 

I fear that benevolent clergymen and their 
lay friends, too often feel satisfied with a com- 
paratively flourishing daily and Sunday school, 
when diligent investigation would convince 
them, that the number of children in such 
schools by no means corresponds with that of 
the children in the parish who ought to be 
under instruction, but who are still immersed in 
ignorance, and in low, perhaps vicious habits. 
When a system of accurate investigation has 
been prosecuted, great numbers of children have 
been often collected into Sunday schools, who 
had been previously overlooked. I will adduce 
the following instances in proof. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



85 



The town of Wigan having been canvassed, 
1,000 children (of whom 507 were members of 
the Church of England) were found, who went 
to no Sunday school. The towns of Kendall 
and Preston having been canvassed, an acces- 
sion of 272 Sunday scholars in the former, and of 
700 in the latter, was the result ; and of these, 
300 were in connexion with the Church of 
England. 

I think, then, I may assume, as an unques- 
tionable truth, that the efforts of members of 
Visiting Associations would eventually contri- 
bute, in a very high degree, to the augmenta- 
tion of the number of children in both daily 
and Sunday Schools. The questions they will 
propose, always bearing upon the welfare of 
families, will, as a matter of course, include 
some reference to the number of children in 
a family, their ability to read, and their at- 
tendance at school ; and the advice consequent 
upon the answers, will usually be found an 
effectual persuasive to the mind of a parent to 
send the children to be educated. This remark 
is of general application, to people of the lower 
class; and as respects two of the peculiar de- 
scriptions of persons already adverted to, namely, 
prisoners and sailors, it must be obvious, that, 
since their children are almost wholly destitute 
of parental care, the intervention of visitors 

i 



86 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

may be of the utmost importance in preserving 
them from surrounding contamination, and di- 
recting their steps to schools where lessons of 
Christian wisdom may be acquired. 

But the benefit bestowed by the visitors of 
associations upon children, does not stop here. 
They may be the means of not only introducing 
them to school, but of retaining them in com- 
munion with the Church of England. After 
remaining some years at school, young persons 
will be exposed, on quitting it, to the danger of 
forgetting the sacred obligations they have been 
taught, and of absenting themselves from 
church. They may not do this wholly, or at 
once ; but the occupations of life, or the invita- 
tions of pleasure, will be too apt to alienate 
them, by degrees, from religious duties they 
once scrupulously adhered to. But that ac- 
quaintance with, and influence over families, 
which the members of Visiting Associations ob- 
tain, will afford them opportunities of watching 
over young persons as they grow up, and of 
prevailing upon them, personally, if at home, or 
through relatives, if gone to service, to continue 
steadfastly attentive to the public duties of re- 
ligion. 

The visits of such members wilHhus practically 
illustrate that principle of which Dr. Chalmers 
is so strong an advocate, in his " Christian and 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



87 



Civic Economy" — Locality. Hitherto it has 
been too little weighed and acted upon by be- 
nevolent clergymen and laymen, especially in 
reference to schools for the children of the poor; 
but as their welfare, and that of the community 
at large, and the religious prosperity of the 
Church of England, are essentially interwoven 
with the adoption of plans founded upon that 
principle, I will transcribe several important 
paragraphs from that able author. 

Contrasting the usual method of setting up 
schools without visiting to seek for scholars, 
with that of instituting diligent search in a given 
district, he remarks : 

" The schools, under a general system, are 
so many centres of attraction for all the existing 
desire that there is towards Christianity ; and 
what is thus drawn, is, doubtless, often bet- 
tered and advanced by the fellowship into 
which it has entered. The schools, under a 
local system, are so many centres of emanation, 
from which a vivifying influence is actively pro- 
pagated through a dead and putrid mass. It 
does not surprise us to be told, that, under the 
former operation, there should be an increase 
of youthful delinquency, along with an increase 
of public instruction for the young. Should 
the latter operation become universal in cities, 
we should be surprised if there were still an 



88 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

increase of youthful delinquency ; and it were 
a phenomenon we would be unable to explain. 

" The former, or general system, draws 
around it the young of our more decent and 
reputable families. It can give an impulse to 
all the matter that floats upon the surface of 
society. It is the pride of the latter, or local 
system, while it refuses not these, that it also 
fetches out from their obscurities, the very 
poorest and most profligate, of children. It 
may have a painful encounter at the outset, 
with the filth, and the raggedness, and the 
other rude and revolting materials, which it has 
so laboriously excavated from those mines of 
depravity, that lie beneath the surface of com- 
mon observation. But it may well be consoled 
with the thought, that, while much good has 
been done by its predecessor, which, we trust 
that it is on the eve of supplanting, it holds in 
its own hands the materials of a far more glo- 
rious transformation." # 

Proceeding, afterwards, to describe the dis- 
advantages of the common mode of conducting 
Sunday schools, compared with the superior 
advantages obtained on the local, or visiting 
system, (which Sunday school teachers, as well 
as members of Visiting Associations may act 

* Chalmers* Christian and Civic Economy, vol. i. 
p. 64. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



89 



upon,) Dr. Chalmers, with his usual eloquence, 
observes : 

" The families that furnish children to the 
same teacher, may lie at a wide physical dis- 
tance from each other ; and it is therefore sel- 
dom that he holds any week-day intercourse at 
all, with the few and scattered houses, out of 
which his scholars repair to him, or that he 
maintains any common understanding w T ith the 
parents about their young-, or that he joins his 
guardianship with theirs, in calling the absentees 
to account for their acts of non-attendance ; or 
that he forms acquaintance with them upon that 
most gratifying and welcome of all intimations, 
that their children are doing well. The close 
and oft- repeated influences, in virtue of which, 
a local teacher may incorporate his school with 
the habit of all the families that are allotted 
to him, are wanting to the general teacher. The 
latter may still, however, head a most numerous 
and respectable school ; but this is more in 
virtue of a pre-existent desire for Christian 
instruction, than of any desire which he himself 
has excited among the families. Attendance 
upon a general teacher, in spite of distance 
and other disadvantages, generally argues, and 
is indeed the fruit of a certain value and pre- 
disposition for the lessons of Christianity. At- 
tendance on a local teacher is oftener the fruit, 



90 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

not of an original, but of a communicated taste 
for his instructions. It is a produce of bis own 
gathering. It is the result, not of a spontane- 
ous, but of a derived movement, to which he 
himself gave the primary impulse, by going 
aggressively forth upon a given territory ; and 
which he perpetuates and keeps up by his fre- 
quent calls, and his unremitting vigilance, and 
his oft-repeated applications, brought to bear 
upon one and the same neighbourhood. 

" Under a local system, the teachers move to- 
wards the people. Under a general system, such 
of the people as are disposed to Christianity 
move towards them. To estimate the compara- 
tive effect of these two, take the actual state of 
every mixed and crowded population, where 
there must be many among whom this dis- 
position is utterly extinguished. The question 
is, how shall the influence of a Sabbath school 
be brought most readily and most abundantly 
into contact with their families ? Which of 
the two parties, the teacher, or those to be 
taught, should make the first advances to such 
an approximation? To meet this question, 
let it ever be remembered, that there is a wide 
and a mighty difference between the wants of 
our physical, and those of our moral and 
spiritual nature. In proportion to our want of 
food, is our desire for food ; but it is not so 



"WITH THE CLERGY. 



91 



with our want of knowledge, or virtue, or 
religion. The more destitute we are of these 
last, the more dead we are as to any inclination 
for them. A general system of Sabbath-school- 
ing may attract towards it all the pre-disposition 
that there is for Christian instruction, and yet 
leave the majority as untouched and as un- 
awakened as it found them. In moving 
through the lanes and the recesses of a long- 
neglected population, will it be found of the 
fearful multitude, that not only is their ac- 
quaintance with the Gospel extinguished, but 
their wish to obtain an acquaintance with it is 
also extinguished. They not only have no 
righteousness, but they have no hungering nor 
thirsting after it. A general teacher may draw 
some kindred particles out of this assemblage. 
He may bring around him such families as are 
of a homogeneous quality with himself. Those 
purer ingredients of the mass, which retain so 
much of the ethereal character as to have an 
ethereal tendency, may move towards a place of 
central and congenial attraction, though at a 
considerable distance from them ; and, even 
though, in so doing they have to come sepa- 
rately out from that overwhelming admixture 
with which they are encompassed. But the 
bulky sediment remains untouched and station- 
ary ; and, by its power of assimilation too, is all 



92 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

the while adding to its own magnitude. And 
thus it is both a possible thing that schools may 
multiply under a general system, and that out 
of the resources of a mighty population, an 
overflowing attendance may be afforded to each 
of them, while an humble fraction of the whole 
is all that is overtaken : and below the goodly 
superficies of a great apparent stir and activity, 
may an unseen structure of baser materials 
deepen and accumulate underneath, so as to 
furnish a solution of the fact, that with an 
increase of Christian exertion amongst us, there 
should, at one and the same time, be an in- 
crease of heathenism. 

" It is the pervading operation of the local 
system, which gives it such a superior value 
and effect in our estimation. It is its thorough 
diffusion through that portion of the mass in 
which it operates. It is that movement by 
which it traverses the whole population, and 
by which, instead of only holding forth its 
signals to those of them who are awake, it 
knocks at the doors of those who are most 
profoundly asleep, and with a force far more 
effective than if it were physical, drags them 
out to a willing attendance upon its ministra- 
tions. In this way, or indeed in any way, may 
it still be impossible to reach the parents of our 
present generation. But the important prac- 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



93 



tical fact is, that, averse as they may be to Chris- 
tianity on their own account, and negligent 
as they often are, in their own persons, of the 
Christianity of their children, still, there is a 
pride and a satisfaction felt in their attendance 
upon the Sabbath schools, and their proficiency 
at the Sabbath schools. Let the system be as 
impotent as it may in its efficiency upon the 
old, still, it comes into extensive contact with 
the ductile and susceptible young ; and, from 
the way in which it is fitted to muster them 
nearly all into its presence, is it fitted, in proper 
hands, to wield a high and a presiding influence 
over the destinies of a future age." # 

I will not weaken the arguments of Dr. Chal- 
mers by attempting to add any thing in sup- 
port ; but there is one topic to which I deem it 
advisable to advert very briefly at the close of 
this chapter, — that of Parochial Lending Li- 
braries. A clergyman who thinks proper to 
adopt this powerful engine of moral improve- 
ment in his parish, may receive much valuable 
help from the Laity as visiting members. In 
populous districts it seems also necessary that 
the Lending Libraries should be chiefly under 
the management of such persons, and of the 

* Chalmers' Christian and ^Civic Economy, vol. i 
pp. 60— G3. 



/ 



94 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

teachers of Sunday schools. When the former 
visit in their respective districts, the books lent 
will often furnish matter for interesting con- 
versation with the sick and aged poor. Clergy- 
men will naturally select the books and tracts 
they wish to constitute such Libraries for their 
own parishes.* Many of the Homilies well 
deserve to form a part. Two circumstances 
render the establishment of such Libraries 
peculiarly necessary in the present day ; first 
the general spread of education among the 
children of the poor ; secondly, the danger 
arising to those who can read, from the ex- 
tensive diffusion of infidel and other pernicious 
publications. The proper antidote consists in 
interesting publications, possessing a tendency 
to promote true religion in the minds of the 
young. Such libraries should contain works 
adapted to convince Roman Catholics of their 
errors, if persons of that communion reside in 
the parish, and to fortify Protestants against 

* To the Reports of the " Society for promoting 
Christian Knowledge/' are annexed Rules for the for- 
mation of Parochial Lending Libraries. " A Letter 
addressed to the Lord Bishop of London, on the ex- 
pediency of establishing Parochial Libraries in the 
Metropolis/' by a Subscriber to King's College, con- 
tains some important remarks respecting books of popu- 
lar literature, adapted to different classes, and to the 
progress of knowledge in the present day. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 

the errors of the Church of Rome. Lending 
Libraries were found of inestimable advantage 
towards raising M. Oberlin's parish, in Alsace, 
to the high degree of moral culture which it 
attained. Each of the five schools, in five several 
villages which constituted his charge, possessed 
a Lending Library ; and the books passed in 
succession from one library to another in the 
different villages. 



96 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



CHAP. V. 



ADDITIONAL MOTIVES FOR A MORE GENERAL CO- 
OPERATION OF THE LAY MEMBERS OF THE 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND WITH THE CLERGY IN 
PAROCHIAL DISTRICT AND VISITING ASSOCIATIONS, 
FROM THE ZEALOUS EFFORTS AND ACTIVITY OF 
MEMBERS OF OTHER CHURCHES. 

Sect. 1. — The zeal of members of the 
Church of Rome, a motive for establishing 
Church of England Visiting Associations. 

The Church of Rome, for more than twelve 
centuries past an apostate, and now a falling 
Church, approaching the period of its dissolu- 
tion, has been in a great measure sustained in 
public estimation, among Roman Catholics, not- 
withstanding the enormous corruptions by 
which it is disfigured, by the magnificent in- 
stitutions of beneficence that adorn many 
European cities, and by that spirit cf active 
benevolence which has characterized some of 
the religious orders within its pale. A veil has 
thus concealed, in a great degree, its hideous 
deformities from the eyes of the undiscerning. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 97 

Having made it my particular object, when 
travelling through France, and Italy, not only 
to make inquiry respecting philanthropic es- 
tablishments of every description, but to visit 
the interior of the edifices, and converse with 
those who bore office in them, I am able to 
adduce a few instances in reference to the 
very object which I would wish strenuously to 
recommend, namely, the formation of Church 
of England Visiting Associations ; and venture 
to hope, that the details I am about to com- 
municate will be neither fatiguing to the reader, 
nor without their use in stimulating the mem- 
bers of a purer Church to fresh activity in their 
career of beneficence. 

There are various confraternities in the 
Church of Rome, established for the purpose of 
assisting the decent poor and debtors ; and for 
visiting prisoners in gaol, and sick per- 
sons, &c. 

At the Cathedral of Brescia, I noticed that 
Cardinal Barbadicus had instituted an asso- 
ciation which " utriusque vita alimenta 
prcebet" has for its object, to impart bodily 
and spiritual food to the indigent. 

At the Church of the Twelve Apostles, at 
Rome, Clement VIII. established the " con- 
fraternity of the Twelve Apostles," the mem- 
bers of which provide physicians and medicines 

F 



98 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

for the sick poor, pay house rent for twelve 
widows, assist the modest poor who cannot beg, 
and give dowers annually to several poor 
girls. 

Amongst the statues to the founders of cele- 
brated institutions which decorate the interior 
of St. Peter's, at Rome, is one with the in- 
scription, " S. Camillus Cler. Reg. Ministr. 
Infirm. Fundator." This extraordinary man, 
Camillus de Lellis, was a dissipated military 
man until his twenty-fifth year, then became 
a penitent, went to Rome, attended the sick in 
the " Hospital of Incurables at thirty-two 
years of age learned to read, was afterwards 
ordained priest, and at length, with a few 
others, laid the foundation of a congregation, 
or order of clergymen, who were specially de- 
signed, and take a vow to visit the sick, even 
in cases of an infectious nature. They are 
called in Italian, " CJiierici Regolari Crociferi, 
Ministri degV Infermi."* Camillus died at 
Rome in the year 1614, aged sixty-five. 
Young persons are educated at S. Maria in 
Trivio, — a small religious college, with a 
church, and passing through various steps of 

* The Crocigeri who had Hospitals, or rather Hos- 
pices, for the entertainment of strangers, were a totally- 
different order. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 99 

probation, are admitted, (1.) to minor orders; 
(2.) to the sub-diaconate ; (3.) to the order of 
deacons ; (4.) to that of the priesthood. They 
complete their studies at S. Maria Maddalena, 
and, without being required to attend the 
larger colleges, are ordained, after the exami- 
nations deemed requisite. There were two 
priests and eight students when I saw the 
Institution. The funds had been diminished 
by French rapacity. At the church of S. Maria 
Maddalena, eighteen priests of the order hold 
themselves in readiness to attend the sick and 
dying, at any time of the day or night, one of 
them being always awake and dressed. At 
Florence and Naples the same order exists, 
and Novices are trained. It is not my pro- 
vince now to inquire whether an order of in- 
ferior clergymen, who shall not be required to 
take University degrees, would be desirable in 
large cities, chiefly for the purpose of visiting 
the sick, burying the dead, reading the liturgy, 
and preaching in Hospitals and Workhouses. 
But even if such an order were countenanced 
by Ecclesiastical superiors, and especially if not, 
voluntary visitors, the members of an Asso- 
ciation of the Laity under the direction of the 
parish minister, cannot but be desirable, I think, 
and even necessary. In any case, the zealous 
attention to the sick and dying, which the 

f2 



100 CO-OPERATION" OF THE LAITY 

Church of Rome has thus exhibited, remains 
as a stimulant to excite members of the Re- 
formed Churches. 

I proceed to mention another order, " The 
Order of Charity," founded by Johannes de 
Deo, (St. Johannes de Deo, as he is styled by 
Roman Catholics,) for the relief of the neg- 
lected sick poor. This humane individual lived 
a few centuries ago in the Province of Granada, 
in Spain. His employment was that of selling 
wood at market; and having with the profits 
hired a house for the sick poor, he attended 
them in person, and on one occasion saved 
them from the flames when his house, or 
little hospital was on fire. In these humble 
exertions originated this order, which now 
includes 14 monasteries, with hospitals an- 
nexed, in Romagna, and 20 in the kingdom of 
Naples. Before the French Revolution there 
were, I have been told, about 500 in France. 
That hurricane swept them away. There are 
now only three. Indeed, as far as my own ob- 
servation has extended, I am compelled to con- 
sider the well-endowed institutions of this order 
lamentably abused ; being rather the means 
of supporting the idle, than of conferring con- 
siderable benefit on the sick poor. At Perugia, 
for example, I found that the monastery and 
hospital of this order contained three priests, 



WITH THE CLERGY. 101 

four medical attendants, (when required,) several 
servants, and 16 incurable old men; from 
which it is evident that unless a system of 
visiting the sick in the city was also pursued, 
the whole asylum could be little more than a 
retreat for the indolent. At Home, the mem- 
bers of this order are denominated " Buon 
Fratelli di S. Johanne di Dio. # " The general of 
the order resides there. The hospital contains 
74 beds, many of which were empty when I 
saw it. Here members pass their novitiate. 
Several laymen attend the sick, and four priests 
give spiritual instruction, and officiate at the 
annexed chapel, which is decorated with a 
profusion of the richest marbles. The funds 
arise from rents, and legacies bequeathed. 
Here also I perceived with regret, that there 
were many attendants, and only a few persons 
sick. This establishment, and the various 
branches of the order existing in different 
places, however ill-managed, attest the stre- 
nuous zeal, and great liberality of those opulent 
members of the Church of Rome, who, in past 
times, bequeathed sums for their support. I 

* Wadham College, Oxford, was a friary of Bon- 
hommes, and Dr. Bush, the first Protestant Bishop of 
Bristol, was one of them ; whether allied to the Buon 
Fratelli I have not the means of ascertaining ; I imagine 
not. 



102 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

am happy, however, to add, that very en- 
lightened views with regard to the most econo- 
mical manner of providing for the relief of the 
sick and needy, have been of late years gra- 
dually diffused over many parts of Italy. 
Gioja is a writer of high renown on that branch 
of political economy which regards the mainte- 
nance of the poor, asylums, houses of industry, 
&c. ; and I have before me a work on similar 
subjects, entitled, " Pensieri Economici," by 
Count Folchino Schizzi, an author who has 
also translated into Italian a book, called " II 
Visitatore del Povero, the Poor Man's Visitor, 
published in French, by Baron Degerando. In 
mentioning this circumstance, I cannot but ex- 
press a feeling in which the reader will partici- 
pate, that of pleasure at finding that amongst the 
literary men, and even noblemen of the present 
age in France and Italy, there are some who 
dedicate their thoughts and pens to that pain- 
fully intricate and perplexing, but deeply affect- 
ing subject, interesting to the community at large, 
as well as to religion and humanity, — the best 
means of supplying relief to the distressed. 

Notwithstanding that proverbial levity which 
is attributed to the French people, and which 
seems particularly hostile to the cultivation of 
the finer sympathies of our nature, France has 
certainly produced Associations and Institutions 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



103 



of a very noble description for the alleviation of 
human suffering. Of these the most remark- 
able derive their origin from the humane in- 
terposition of Vincent de Paul, a very ex- 
traordinary character, who, born a peasant's 
son, in the Diocese of Acqs, in 1576, became a 
priest, and after returning from the condition 
of a slave at Tunis, on the Barbary coast, to 
which he had been carried by pirates, became 
the founder of some of the most useful as well 
as magnificent philanthropic institutions that 
ever adorned France. I will now only intro- 
duce a few particulars relative to those con- 
nected with visiting sick persons, and others in 
a state of misery, leaving the more extended 
details for insertion in the Appendix. 

Vincent de Paul established the first of those 
* Charites de Paroisse" which were afterwards 
extensively adopted in France. 

These parochial Charity Associations origi- 
nated in a very simple circumstance. At an 
early period of life, Vincent de Paul had the 
care of the parish of Chatillon-les-Dombes ; 
and was about to ascend the pulpit to preach, 
when Mme. de la Chassaigne begged him to 
recommend to the charity of the hearers a 
poor family who lived half a league from the 
place, the children and farm-servants having 
been taken ill. The consequence of the appeal 



104 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

was, that when he went to see the family, he 
met a crowd of people, who had taken bread, 
wine, and other articles for their relief. To 
his reflecting mind it instantly occurred, that 
where so much ill- directed benevolence ex- 
isted, it was desirable, that instead of giving 
super-abundant relief on one day, to one family, 
who could not consume the food before it was 
spoiled, an association should be formed for the 
relief of the poor generally in times of need. 
Several ladies concurred in the plan, which, 
in seasons of famine and general sickness, be- 
came of incalculable benefit, long after Vincent 
de Paul had left the parish. 

Vincent himself afterwards established asso- 
ciations in more than thirty parishes belonging 
to his illustrious patron, M. de Gondy, Count 
of Joigny ; and similar associations gradually 
spread into Lorraine, Savoy, and Italy. 

Particularly attached as he was to the 
country poor, as those who were generally the 
most neglected, he did not at first intend to 
introduce his plan of parochial charity asso- 
ciations into large cities; but the miseries of 
a particular class of persons, namely, respectable 
mechanics, &c. who were reluctant when they 
fell sick to seek relief at the Hotel Dieu, and 
whose illness threw their families into poverty, 
induced the priests at Paris to wish for charity 



WITH THE CLERGY. 105 

associations adapted to city parishes. Vincent 
de Paul, at their request, drew up the requisite 
regulations, and the plan was gradually adopted 
in almost all the parishes of that metropolis. 

Deeply anxious, however, that the charity 
associations in country parishes should flourish, 
he wished that some lady of superior ability 
might be found to visit them occasionally, and 
to encourage the members to persevere in their 
attention to the sick and the wretched. Such a 
valuable assistant he found in Mine, le Gras. 
She requested Vincent de Paul to become her 
director ; and expressed to him her wish to 
enter fully into his great plans for the relief 
of suffering humanity. Vincent, however, 
thought proper to try her charity and patience 
during four years ; and then, finding her 
strongly and perseveringly disposed for humane 
offices, he commissioned her (being then a wi- 
dow) to visit several of the associations in the 
country. She did so in the dioceses of Soissons, 
Paris, Beauvais, Meaux, Senlis, Chartres, and 
Chalons ; addressing the females who belonged 
to these charitable associations ; giving useful 
instruction? ; encouraging their attention to 
the sick by her own example ; and replenishing 
their little funds from ber own purse; whilst, 
besides relieving bodily wants, she made it 

f3 



106 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

especially her object to promote a deep sense of 
religion in the persons she visited. 

After a lapse of 17 years from the time 
when the parochial charity associations, already 
alluded to, were first established, circumstances 
led to an improvement of the system not origi- 
nally contemplated. Many of the members 
f these associations were ladies of birth and 
fortune ; but their husbands having often ex- 
pressed anxiety lest they should be injured by 
breathing infected air in the chambers of the 
sick, servants were often commissioned to visit 
them in their stead. These servants being in 
general very unfit, for want of knowledge and 
sympathy, to fulfil a duty of this nature, 
M. Vincent cherished a wish that religiously- 
disposed young women of the middle and lower 
classes might be specially trained for this work 
of mercy. The benevolent Mme le Gras, 
anxious for the same object, undertook to train 
them in her own house ; and she commenced 
the undertaking by receiving four novices. This 
was the origin of the noble establishment of 
the " Filles de la Charite" which has for almost 
two hundred years afforded shelter to the faint- 
ing and wretched inhabitants of the cities and 
province s of France. How many millions have 
received benefit from them during two centuries, 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



107 



or how many thousands of these excellent wo- 
men have laboured until death in that service, 
I have no documents to shew ; but, whilst Mme. 
le Gras began to train so small a number as 
four, I can state on the authority of one of their 
superiors, who politely favoured me with the 
information, that there are now about 400 em- 
ployed in the city of Paris, and about 4000 
scattered over France, besides 300 in Spain, 
600 in Poland, and a few in Italy. 

The occupations of the Sisters of Charity com- 
prise, not only 1, attending the sick poor at their 
own homes, and 2, attending the sick in several 
hospitals, but likewise, 3, taking charge of the 
asylum for foundlings ; and, 4, educating poor 
girls gratis.* 

Vincent de Paul was a principal instrument 
in forming two other institutions for visiting 
the distressed ; the " Compagnie de Dames" 
and " Assembles de Seigneurs. 11 The " Com- 
pagnie de Dames" originated in the humanity 
of a rich widow, Mme. de Goussault, who 
represented to M. Vincent that the Hotel Dieu, 
a hospital at Paris, deserved particular atten- 
tion, since as many as 25,000 persons of all 
ages passed through it in the course of a year. 
M. Vincent was at first unwilling to interfere, 

* See further account in Appendix, No. VI. 

F 4 



108 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

because the Hotel Dieu was under the care of 
experienced directors, and nuns, but when the 
Archbishop of Paris, at Mme. de Goussaulfs re- 
quest, urged him to form a society of ladies for 
the benefit of the sick in that hospital, his 
scruples were removed.* 

Events of a political nature, attended with a 
variety of disasters, afterwards led Vincent de 
Paul to establish an " Assemblee de Seigneurs" 
an Association of charitable noblemen, to re- 
lieve the necessities of noblemen and their 
families, who came as exiles to Paris. Many 
of the nobility of Lorraine had fled to that 
city, for refuge during the calamitous wars of 
Charles IV. Duke of Lorraine. The wreck of 
their property, which they had brought with 
them, being at last spent, and their distress 
becoming known to M. Vincent, he exhorted 
some French noblemen to associate for their 
relief. They did so, and supplied their wants 
from month to month, during eight years, until 
events allowed them to return to their own 
country. 

During the time of the civil wars between 
Charles I. and the English Parliament, many 
Roman Catholic families fled to France; and 

* For details relative to this " Compagnie," see 
Appendix, No. VII. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



109 



they also were relieved, like the nobility of 
Lorraine, by the liberality of the " Assemhlee 
de Seigneurs," one of whom, M. le Marquis de 
Renty, was the indefatigable almoner, who called 
upon them with the sums voted for their sup- 
port. Whilst it is honourable to France to 
state that those charitable persons relieved their 
co-religionists from England ; it is still more 
honourable to England to record, that when the 
tempest of the French Revolution threw Roman 
Catholic noblemen and Roman Catholic priests 
upon her shores, they experienced all the atten- 
tion which politeness, humanity, and religious 
principle demanded, although members of a 
church deeply infected with superstition, and 
descendants of persons who had often imbrued 
their hands in the blood of those holy men, the 
Protestants of the Reformed Church of France. 

There is another foreign order (of females,) 
occupied in visiting the sick, which I ought not 
to omit to notice : it is that of the " Sisters of 
the Visitation/' or " Sosurs de la Visitation de 
?a Ste. Vierge" originally established in Savoy 
in the year 16 LO, by Francois de Sales, titular Bi- 
shop of Geneva. That zealous Roman Catholic 
prelate, with the assistance of the Baroness de 
Chantal, instituted a congregation of women 
under the above appellation, which acquired 
such renown on account of the benevolent exer- 



110 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

tions of its members, that in half a century 
there were about one hundred and thirty houses 
of this order in different parts of Europe. In 
forming this congregation, it was the particular 
object of Francois de Sales to afford a retreat 
for females, especially widows, of little or no 
fortune; and who, instead of practising the 
austerities common in convents, should chiefly 
aim to subdue the will and the affections into 
subjection to the Gospel, and occupy their 
time, in a great measure, in visiting and con- 
soling the sick. # 

There was a very remarkable person con- 
nected with this order, living a few years ago 
at Besan§on, an ancient city of Franche Comte, 
who devoted her time almost entirely to visiting 
sick prisoners of war, and performed singly, 
what, in most instances, would have required 
the efforts of many associated persons. I there- 
fore think that no apology will be deemed neces- 
sary for introducing, at tolerably full length, an 
account of Sceur Marthe de Besan§on. 

During the late wars, Besan§on was one of 
the principal stations for English, Russian, 
Prussian, and other prisoners. I had heard, 
several years ago, of the benevolent Soeur 
Marthe, and most gladly availed myself of an 

* Some of the Sisters of this Order keep schools for 
the instruction of poor female children. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



Ill 



opportunity to obtain correct information re- 
specting her on the spot. I was very kindly 
received by her nephew, M. Biget, who was so 
obliging as to give me the particulars I am now 
about to communicate. Her family name was 
Biget. She was born at Thoraize, a village 
two leagues from Besancon ; her father pos- 
sessed a little property in that rural district. 
Sceur Marthe, though she had taken vows, was 
not a cloistered nun, but a " Sceur du dehors," 
an out-of-door sister, attached to the Convent 
of the " Filles," or Nuns of the Visitation. 
It was her office to provide for the temporal 
wants of the convent. When the convent was 
dissolved at the Revolution, and annexed to the 
hospital of St. Louis, this worthy woman made 
it her occupation to attend at the hospitals, and 
succour the needy. The Russians, made pri- 
soners at the battle of Zurich, were the early 
objects of her compassion, as were those of 
other nations afterwards in succession, and 
amongst them English sailors; for though the 
sailors taken in ships of war received an allow- 
ance from the British Government, those taken 
in vessels engaged in trade stood often in great 
want of assistance. By her kind interposition, 
she not only procured clothes and food from 
charitable persons in the city, but also the 
General's permission that they might work by 



112 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

day in the town. The sick prisoners of other 
nations, however, were more numerous than the 
English. The kind attention which she had for 
many years given to the wants of the prisoners 
of war, procured for her so much respect from 
the Allied Sovereigns and Generals, after the 
peace of 1814, that she received several pre- 
sents from them, and honorary decorations, as 
tokens of esteem. In her portrait, she appears 
decorated with various orders and medals, 
namely, 

A gold medal from the Emperor Alexander : 
A gold medal from the King of Prussia : 
A medal from the Emperor of Austria : 
A medal from the Agricultural Society, (hom- 

mage a la vertu :) 
A French Cross from Louis XVIII. : 
The Lys de France : 

The large Cross of her Order, (that of the 
Visitation.) 
She also received presents of money ; 
100 Louis d'or from the Duke of Welling- 
ton ; 50 Louis annually, from Louis XVIII. ; 
50 Louis annually, from the Emperor Alex- 
ander, besides occasional grants for purposes 
of charity ; and 100 Louis from the King 
of Prussia; besides other presents, accompa- 
nied with letters. She afterwards endured a 
protracted illness of four years. She had been 



With the clergy. 



113 



accustomed to read the works of Francois de 
Sales, and other pious books for devotional pur- 
poses ; and it may be hoped, that, though she 
abounded in good works, she had learnt, in the 
spirit of true humility, to rely for eternal life on 
the merits of the Redeemer only. In that 
case she will doubtless receive his benediction 
amongst those to whom he will say, " I was 
sick and in prison and ye visited me." In 
honouring such beneficence the Allied Sove- 
reigns did honour to themselves ; and it might 
contribute much to the happiness of society, 
if instead of limiting honorary rewards to mili- 
tary men only, monarchs of a pacific character 
were, by distinct marks of approbation, to shew 
their esteem for those of their subjects, whether 
amongst the nobility, clergy, or laity, men or 
women, who have distinguished themselves by 
works of utility and labours of beneficence ; — 
not merely to reward such persons, who, pro- 
bably, though worthy of recompence, have not 
acted for the sake of reward ; but to stimulate 
others to follow their example. In the efforts 
of Sceur Marthe we see a pleasing proof how 
happily the Christian religion, even under a 
very unfavourable and distorted form as in the 
Church of Rome, is adapted to mitigate the 
evils consequent upon war; and if at any 
future time war should unhappily arise and 



114 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

prisoners be brought to England, let it be hoped 
that fit persons, whether men, or women a little 
advanced in life, will not be wanting to act 
towards our enemies as Sceur Marthe did 
towards the English and their Allies. 

Sect. 2. — The efforts of Foreign Protes- 
tants a motive for establishing Church of 
England Visiting Associations. 

If the zeal and compassion of members of 
so corrupt a church as the Church of Rome, 
as exhibited in the last section, may well ani- 
mate members of our purer and reformed church 
to fresh exertion ; so also should the efforts of 
members of Foreign Protestant Churches, 
which, although from the paucity of Protes- 
tants, compared with Roman Catholics, and 
their comparative poverty, not on so splendid 
a scale as those of the latter, nevertheless fur- 
nish such proofs of wisdom and humanity as 
shed lustre on their faith, — or rather, were its 
genuine emanations and evidences. 

I will first describe the efforts of a few indi- 
viduals amongst the Laity, who concurred with 
the benevolent Pastor Oberlin, a Lutheran 
clergyman of Alsace, in relieving the wants, 
and improving the condition of his parish at 
Ban de la Roche. As that parish, though a 
country parish, comprised originally five vil- 



WITH THE CLERGY. 115 

lages, and contained 4,000 souls, it seems not 
unfit to be mentioned in this place, as my ob- 
servations in the present work refer, not only 
to cities and large towns, but likewise to over- 
grown villages in our manufacturing districts. 

The most respectable family in the parish, 
that of M. Legrand, not only rendered very 
efficient aid to their minister, by employing 
many of the children, and others, in their silk 
ribbon manufactory ; but the elder M. Legrand, 
when he retired from the more disquieting cares 
of life, dedicated his time to the inspection of 
the schools, and thus became, as a superinten- 
dent, a very valuable coadjutor to his minister. 
In his attempts to promote industry, and rural 
and domestic economy amongst his parishioners, 
and in his extra-parochial efforts to benefit his 
country at large, M. Oberlin was assisted by 
members of that family. 

Other parishioners had imbibed a portion of 
their pastor's benevolence, for when parents 
died, their friends and neighbours kindly took 
charge of their orphan children ; the young 
people also cheerfully assisted the aged and 
sick in their field-work ; and, if a cottage was 
to be built, fetched the materials. Again, if 
a poor man's cow died the people combined to 
help him to buy another. One young person 
refused to enter the marriage- state, that she 



116 CO-OPERATION OP THE LAITY 

might dedicate her time and strength, and 
the surplus of her gains, after a moderate al- 
lowance for herself, to the relief of the necessi- 
tous, and the support of religious institutions. 
The most remarkable of M. Oberlin's lay-as- 
sistants were five females, of whom I will give 
an abridged account. Sophia Bernard, while 
unmarried, undertook, with the consent of her 
parents, the support and education of three 
helpless boys, whom their inhuman father had 
often trampled under his feet, and treated in a 
manner too shocking to relate, when, nearly 
starving with hunger they ventured to cry out 
for food. Soon afterwards she proved the 
happy means of saving the lives of three Ro- 
man Catholic children, who, without her as- 
sistance, would have fallen a prey to want and 
famine. Thus she had the management of six 
children, to whom several more were added, 
belonging to parents of three several denomi- 
nations. She then hired a house and a servant 
girl, and supported the whole of the family 
entirely by her own work, and the little money 
acquired by the industry of the children, whom 

she taught to spin cotton A fine 

youth of generous disposition made her an 
offer of marriage, and as she appeared unwilling 
to accept him, declared that he would wait ten 
years if necessary to gain her hand. She then 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



117 



acknowledged that her motive for refusing him 
was the grief it would occasion her to part from 
her little orphans. " He who takes the mother 
takes the children also," replied the young man. 
On this condition the marriage took place, and 
all the children were brought up under their 
mutual care. 

Maria Schepler lived at the opposite end 
of this extensive parish, where the cold is more 
severe, and the ground unfruitful, so that nearly 

all the householders are poor people 

Though distressed and afflicted in her own 
person and circumstances, yet she was a bene- 
factress, and teacher to the whole village in 
which she lived, and even to some neighbouring 
districts .... She also brought up several 
orphans without receiving the smallest recom- 
pense ; and kept a free school for females. 

Catherine Scheidecker, like the former, took 
care of orphans, and kept a free school. Ano- 
ther young woman, Catherine Banzet, visited 
all the schools, to instruct little children in such 
- branches of industry as might render them use- 
ful members of society in their low sphere, espe- 
cially knitting. It is worthy of particular no- 
tice, that the active benevolence of ladies in 
England, and still more recently in France and 
other countries, in promotiug the interests of 
several Religious Societies by Auxiliary Asso- 



118 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

ciations, and personal communication with the 
poor, appears, like some majestic river traced 
to a small rivulet in the mountains as its source, 
to have derived its origin from the humble 
efforts of these women in the Ban de la Roche, 
of whom a very affecting account was trans- 
mitted between twenty and thirty years ago 
by M. Oberlin to his friends and correspondents 
in England. I had the satisfaction of seeing 
Catherine Scheidecker, at Foudai in the year 
1823. She left this world for a better in 1826. 
Sophia Bernard had died some time before my 
arrival. It was delightful even to look at the 
house pointed out as that in which she had 
resided, and unostentatiously exercised such 
genuine benevolence. 

Among M. Oberlin's female parochial as- 
sistants, particular notice is due to Louisa 
Schepler, who resided fifty years in his house, 
and to whose friendly attentions other travellers, 
as well as myself, have been indebted. She 
had been received an orphan into his house in 
her 15th year. On the death of his wife in 
1784, she undertook the management of the 
house and the care of his children, but would 
never accept a pecuniary remuneration. Her 
own little property she devoted to charitable 
purposes and her plain wardrobe. After M. 
Oberlin's death a letter was found addressed 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



119 



to his children, and commending the faithful 
Louisa who had been their nurse, and their 
instructress, to their attention till her death. 
The venerable pastor informs them, that in 
former years, after having visited different vil- 
lages to instruct children in religion, and teach 
them psalmody, she has, upon her return 
over bad roads, in inclement weather, though 
exhausted, wet, or chilled with cold, attended 
to them, when young children, and to house- 
hold affairs. Fully sensible how much they 
owed to such a friend, M. OberhVs children, 
upon his death, proposed to Louisa to give her 
an equal share of their father's little property ; 
but this she refused, and only requested that 
she might remain an inmate in the family, and 
be allowed to add the honoured name of Ober- 
lin to her own. She is still at Waldbach in 
the house of M. Rauscher, the present minis- 
ter, who married a daughter of M. Oberlin. 

It must be granted, however, that M. Oberlin's 
district stood unique amongst the villages of 
France : it was an oasis amid sandy wastes ; 
for great exertions in connexion with religion 
and humanity have by no means characterized 
the French Protestant Church during the last 
century. In the present day a new effort is 
being made which promises extensive benefit 
to the Protestant cause in that country ; and 



120 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

I will adduce an instance of active benevolence 
in one layman, a young nobleman, the Baron 
de Stael,* which well deserves to be referred to 
as a model, and amply shews what valuable 
aid clergymen may derive from the laity, even 
in countries and cities where ignorance and im- 
morality have obtained the ascendancy. Copies 
of the Scriptures being comparatively scarce, 
the Baron de Stael assisted in the formation 
of a Protestant Bible Society, and became one 
of its Secretaries. With a view to promote its 
interests, he made a considerable journey 
through France, in the year 1825, visiting, 
in his progress, Lyons, St. Etienne, Annonay, 
Valence, Loriol, Orange, Marseilles, Toulon, 
Nismes, Alais, Anduze, Montpellier, Toulouse, 
Montauban, Bordeaux, Rochefort, La Rochelle, 
and Nantes. That Society has now above 300 
Auxiliary Associations in the various provinces 
of France. 

The degraded state to which France, inun- 
dated by popery in former, and by infidelity 
in modern times, had been reduced, induced 
M. de Stael to engage in noble efforts to raise 
the standard of morals. For this purpose he 

• The author must again refer to his own work, 
" Brief Memorials of Oberlin and de Stael/' for a 
variety of details connected with the efforts of those ex- 
traordinary characters. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



121 



co-operated with the members, and was made 
President, of the " Societe de la morale 
Chretienne," instituted in order to oppose the 
slave-trade, gambling", and lotteries ; and to 
promote the moral improvement of prisoners, 
and the care of orphans. 

His regard for the temporal welfare of the 
lower classes led M. de Stael to take an active 
part in the " Caisse d' epargne," or " Savings 
Bank," an institution highly desirable on ac- 
count of the improvident habits of the different 
classes of workmen in France. The instruc- 
tion of children he naturally endeavoured to 
extend throughout that country, — a country 
where there were, very lately, as many as 
14,000 villages, chiefly in the south of France 
and the interior, unprovided with means of 
instruction in the first principles of knowledge. 
He also became the Treasurer of a Society 
at Paris for printing and distributing small 
religious publications amongst the people, with 
which 67 associations, composed of Protestants, 
now stand connected in different parts of the 
kingdom. I will only add one more instance 
of the zeal and benevolence of this illustrious 
layman, the firm and cordial support which he 
gave to a Missionary Society established at 
Paris, and which, though still in its infancy, 
has lately sent out three missionaries to Southern 

G 



122 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

Africa. It could not well escape so com- 
prehensive a mind as that of M. de Stael, that 
whilst such a society directed its attention to 
the distant heathen, it was also likely to be of 
great utility in France itself ; having a tendency 
to revive the declining zeal, and to excite the 
dormant sympathies of members of the Pro- 
testant church, as well as to promote deeper 
research into, and widely diffuse more correct 
views of, the nature of the religion they pro- 
fessed. Nor will it be deemed objectionable, 
I trust, if I add, that if more strenuous efforts 
were made, than at , the present moment, by 
appointing able clergymen to preach sermons 
throughout the several dioceses, with the per- 
mission of ecclesiastical superiors ; and by form- 
ing active committees, composed of the Laity 
as well as Clergy in the several archdeaconries, 
deaneries, and parishes, on behalf of the " So- 
ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts," great results, inestimable be- 
nefits, might be anticipated, at home as well 
as abroad : — a circumstance which may be 
added to the benefits enumerated in another 
part of this volume, as flowing from the union of 
the Clergy and Laity in religious efforts. 

I am unwilling to omit a short notice of other 
examples of compassion to the poor on the part 
of the Laity of foreign churches, as they have 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



123 



fallen under my personal observation; for 
though of a very unostentatious, and the last 
of a very humble description, they may afford 
a hint to benevolent individuals, whether dis- 
posed to act singly or in union, for the welfare 
of others. 

When travelling in the neighbourhood of the 
Rhine, I saw a very interesting establishment 
for children of both sexes and adults, founded 
by Count Von der Recke, a Protestant young 
nobleman, who has expended his fortune in 
purchasing an old monastery with the annexed 
lands. The two asylums, (that of Dusselthal, 
which I visited, and that of Overdyck,) contain 
180 inmates, for whose support contributions 
are received occasionally from benevolent per- 
sons in other countries. The children consist 
of 1. Helpless orphans ; 2. the children of con- 
lined or condemned criminals ; 3. The children 
of profligate parents who neglect their offspring. 
They are well instructed in Christian know- 
ledge, and taught a trade, that they may earn an 
honest livelihood. The institution includes a 
clergyman, teachers, superintendents, and ma- 
trons. 

On my journey from Neuchatel to Basle 
(par TEveche) I saw a similar establishment 
formed by a benevolent female, Mademoiselle 
Calame, whose friends are respectable persons 

g2 



124 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

in trade at Locle. It is at Billodes near that 
place, and called " Institut des Billodes," or 
" Asile des Enfans malheureux." It contained, 
when I was there, 180 boys and girls from 
Geneva, Neuchatel, and other places ; orphans, 
foundlings, and the children of vicious parents. 

There are two houses ; the one old, the other 
new. The boys leave the place at 14 years of 
age ; the girls remain till they have attended 
to receive the sacrament at their first commu- 
nion. The employments are various. Some 
children are tailors, some shoemakers, others 
lacemakers. Some knit; others pick stuffs to 
make beds. It is principally a school of in- 
dustry, but each class has an hour's instruc- 
tion daily. The children are taught to read 
the Scriptures ; and they sing hymns very de- 
lightfully. They learn to sing by notes. This 
Institution or Asylum is, from its very origin to 
this day, dependent upon Providence and chari- 
table benefactors for its continuance, having no 
fixed funds. The schoolmistresses and ser- 
vants depend, in like manner, upon contribu- 
tions to the institution, which have chiefly come 
from England, Russia, and Prussia. I saw a 
poor blind girl, teaching the little girls the 
catechism. The Holy Scriptures are read in the 
asyium ; but books are still wanted, as well as 
tracts for reading in the winter evenings. 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



125 



Such an Institution as that of Mile. Calame, 
well deserves the support of opulent travellers 
who may pass through that part of Switzerland ; 
as does that of Count Von der Recke the sup- 
port of travellers near the Rhine. Surely the 
moral grandeur that invests such beneficent 
asylums, will afford more satisfaction to well 
principled and well regulated minds than even 
views of the sublime scenery which occasionally 
meets the eye in Swiss valleys, on Swiss moun- 
tains, and on the banks of that celebrated river. 
The simple inscriptions over the doors of the 
asylum at Billodes, at once appropriate and 
affecting, awaken the sympathies of those who 
pass by, whilst they explain the nature of the 
asylum. " When my father and mother for- 
sake me the Lord taketh me up." " Can a 
woman forget her sucking child, &c." I may 
be permitted to subjoin, that I fear it is an 
error in our charitable schools and asylums in 
England, to devote an undue proportion of 
time to the instruction of children in reading, 
writing, cyphering, and fine needle work, whilst 
they are too little accustomed to those habits of 
industry, and even rather laborious occupations, 
which would so well prepare them for future 
usefulness in life. Nor are they taught to sing 
psalms and hymns well by notes, which would 



126 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

be a delightful recreation, a recommendation 
of religion with its sacred pleasures to their 
hearts, and an important means of improving 
psalmody in the Church of England — still at a 
low ebb. 

It naturally occurs to the reflecting mind, 
that if individuals among foreign Protestants, 
have with so much compassion, and at no small 
risk, ventured upon such a race of Christian 
beneficence, associated individuals may well 
be induced to act as visiting members in our 
English parishes, and give the clergy and their 
poorer fellow-subjects their less hazardous yet 
still very valuable assistance. 

I close this section with simply stating, that 
at Latour, in the valleys of Piedmont, an asso- 
ciation of seven ladies was formed in 1826, 
to visit and succour the poor, and lying-in 
women ; and that Roman Catholics as well 
as Vaudois are partakers of their bounty. I 
only add, that whilst those humbler handmaids 
of our religion, foreign Protestant churches, 
exemplify the spirit of Christianity in establish- 
ing their benevolent associations, it is peculiarly 
incumbent upon the national Church of England, 
a princess among the reformed churches, to 
foster such associations in her bosom ; nor rest 
satisfied until their number shall be so multi- 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



127 



plied as to meet, to an adequate extent, the 
wants of our growing population.* 

Sect. 3. — The activity of English Pro- 
testant Dissenters, a motive for establishing 
Church of England Visiting Associations. 

The time has certainly arrived when the 
wants of our population — I refer partly to their 
physical, but especially to their moral and reli- 
gious necessities — can no longer be safely neg- 

* In the last year a very ingenious yet simple me- 
thod of benefiting the poorer classes at New York has 
been devised and adopted on an extensive scale by the 
Laity. The population of the city is near 200,000, 
amongst whom 479 persons undertook to distribute one 
tract, monthly, and thus visit families willing to receive 
them twelve times in the year. Availing themselves 
of these opportunities, they persuade parents to attend 
places of worship and send their children to Sunday 
schools. In the course of eleven months the visitors 
(257 men, 222 females,) had visited 34,525 families, 
and distributed 370,000 tracts, or more than 1,000 tracts 
every day. Only about one family in sixty refused to 
accept tracts. Other distributors had visited the ship- 
ping, and steam-boats, the markets, the criminal and 
humane institutions, Sunday schools, &c. In conse- 
quence of these universal domiciliary visits in NeAv 
York 1,371 families were found destitute of the Scrip- 
tures, and nearly all were supplied : and 566 children, 
previously neglected, brought into Sunday and Infant 
schools. The same system has been since adopted 
in thirty-three principal towns, and even in whole 
counties in the United States. 



128 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 



lected. If adequate means be not adopted by 
the Church of England to benefit her own 
nominal members, societies composed of volun- 
tary agents, and connected with the various 
bodies of Protestant Dissenters, will attempt to 
supply the existing deficiencies. Whether in 
the progress of their zealous and benevolent 
efforts, multitudes baptized within the pale of 
the national church, may not be alienated from 
her communion, time and facts will shew. In the 
mean while, it is right that the present state of 
society in this respect should be disclosed, in 
order that measures bearing the stamp of reli- 
gion and humanity may be adopted with the 
least possible delay. An American Editor, 
after consulting various sources of information, 
gives the following table as the result of his in- 
vestigation with respect to the Ecclesiastical 



Statistics of England and Wales : 

The population 12,009,685 

The number of parishes . . . 9,133 

Roman Catholic Congregations . 391 
Presbyterian and Unitarian Congregations 217 

Wesleyan Chapels .... 2,811 

Baptist CoDgregations ... 981 

Countess of Huntingdon's Chapels 47 

Independents ..... 1,414 



Although this table seems by no means ex- 
empt from errors, it may not be useless, if a 
tolerably correct survey of the state of things in 



WITH THE CLERGY. 129 

this kingdom. If so, it appears that the con- 
gregations of Protestant Dissenters amount to 
5,470.* About a century ago, that is, in 1716, 
the number of dissenting chapels amounted to 
1,107, During a period, therefore, in which 
the population has doubled, separation from the 
Established Church has increased very nearly 
in the proportion of 5 to 1. 

In order that a clearer idea may be obtained of 
the probable progress of that separation during 
the present century, I will state what I have 
collected from authentic documents relative to 
the extended efforts and activity of different 
associations of Protestant Dissenters, who, whe- 
ther they visit the sick, or instruct adults, or 
educate children in Sunday schools, come per- 
petually in contact with families consisting of 
nominal members of the Church of England. 

" The Stranger's Friend" Societies are 
composed of members of the Wesleyan con- 
nexion, who visit the sick poor, administer 
temporal relief, and instruct them in religious 
doctrines. The number of the persons who 
come under their notice is very considerable, 
and must greatly increase their influence. 

The " Christian Instruction Society" for Lon- 
don and its Vicinity, formed in the year 1825, 

* It has been stated in the Whitehall Evening Post 
that Dissenting Congregations amount to 7,904. 

g3 



130 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

comprises already under its care in the metro- 
polis 29,000 families, who are visited and in- 
structed by not less than 1,100 members, male 
and female, of different dissenting chapels. 

The Bristol City* Mission Society has within 
the last four years taken under instruction above 
6,000 families, who are visited by 300 indivi- 
duals weekly. The visitors have established 
Lending Libraries, and occasionally distribute 
coke, and soap, and dispensary notes, as well as 
clothes, entrusted to them. In the same city 
the Wesleyan Methodists occupy three large 
districts, and visit about 2,000 families. 

The above though but a few, yet as princi- 
pal specimens, will afford evidence of the 
prodigious strides which dissent is making in 
the kingdom, and which it cannot but make in 
unison with such efforts, however compassionate 
the motives of active dissenters may be, and 
even when untinged with the spirit of prose- 
lytism. 

Whilst the adult members of families, un- 
visited by the members of Church of England 

* A Diocesan District Visiting Society has been re- 
cently established under the sanction of the Lord Bishop 
of Bristol. The District Visiting Society in London, 
conducted by members of the Established Church, com- 
prised by the last Report 229 visitors and 3,470 families 
visiet . 



WITH THE CLERGY. 



131 



Associations, necessarily become more or less 
alienated from the Established Church, their 
children as naturally frequent the Sunday 
schools in which the visitors from dissenting 
societies, or their friends, give instruction in the 
art of reading, and impart religious knowledge. 
So rapidly have Sunday schools increased with- 
in the last few years, that the " Sunday School 
Union," comprehending the schools of various 
bodies of dissenters, lately calculated its num- 
bers as follows : 

Sunday Schools. Teachers. Scholars. 

Of which number ^) 

there are in the )> 462 6,126 66,487 

Metropolis, J 

If this number be contrasted with the state- 
ment of the " National Schools' Society," the 
difference can scarcely be deemed otherwise 
than appalling. 

By the Report of the National Society, for 
1830, it appears that there are, in connexion 
with the Established Church, 

Children. 

2595 Daily & Sunday schools, containing 216,571 
1083 Sunday schools, containing 129,207 

To reason at any length upon this subject, 
in the present Section, seems superfluous. I 

g 4 



132 CO-OPERATION OF THE LAITY 

appeal to the facts now adduced, in proof of 
the validity of the arguments I have used 
throughout this volume, to shew the expediency 
of establishing, without delay, Church of Eng- 
land Parochial and District Visiting Associ- 
ations ; deprecating, at the same time, the 
cherishing any feelings of unchristian bitterness 
towards British fellow-Protestants, whose ac- 
tivity should indeed stimulate Church of Eng- 
land Protestants to renewed efforts, but whose 
compassion for the ignorant and the indigent 
entitles them to our sincere respect. 

"Whilst the subject, viewed in relation to the 
security of the Established Church, as intimately 
allied to the preservation of her poorer members 
within her communion, will not fail, I hope, to 
have due weight ; I would also venture to add, 
that if the expediency of establishing Visiting 
Associations in large parishes be clear, from the 
great increase of our population, and from that 
increase of crime to which fluctuations in trade, 
dram-shops, the profanation of the Christian 
Sabbath, and spreading infidelity, so much 
contribute ; if such Associations are sanctioned 
alike by the practice of the Primitive Church, 
and that of the Church of England ; if they 
are calculated to diffuse such copious benefits, 
as the alleviation of human misery, the amelio- 
ration of the lot of the poor, and the communica- 



WITH THE CLERGY. 133 

tion of comfort to the sick and afflicted, and 
of instruction to ignorant adults as well as chil- 
dren ; the Laity of the Church of England, co- 
operating with the Clergy of the Church of 
England, with the approbation of the Bishops 
of the Church of England; will not, surely, be 
remiss, when the circumstances of the times so 
urgently call them to action ; but, throwing the 
efforts of the Church of Rome into the shade 
by efforts superior both in wisdom of arrange- 
ment, and purity of feeling ; and rising above 
members of Foreign Churches in extent of 
exertion as they do in numbers and in opulence ; 
will strive to imitate the zeal even of dissenters ; 
not with unholy dispositions ; not in strife and 
envy ; still less in malice and uncharitableness ; 
but with feelings of deep commiseration for the 
poorer members of the Church of England, 
hitherto, it may be feared, too much overlooked, 
but who themselves still look up to that Church 
as to a parent, and have therefore a right to 
expect that the parent should regard the welfare 
of her offspring. 



APPENDIX. 



No. I. 

Abridged Account of the " Societies for the 
Reformation of Manners." 

The " Account of the Societies for Reformation of 
Manners in England and Ireland," of which a fifth 
edition appeared in 1701, had the following docu- 
ments prefixed : 

1. Approbation by a number of the Nobility, and 
Judges, as well as the Clergy, above seventy in 
all. 

2. An Address of the House of Commons to the 
King, for the suppressing of Profaneness and Vice. 

3. The King's Proclamation for preventing and 
punishing Immorality and Profaneness. (Feb. 
20, 1697.) 

" Even after the accession of his present Ma- 
jesty * to the crown," observes the account, 
" though Popery immediately vanished, immo- 
rality and profaneness still kept their ground, as 
if they expected an establishment with our liber- 
ties after so long and peaceable a possession. He- 
formation was indeed talked of by some persons, 
as an excellent thing, and as a proper way of 
expressing our thankfulness to Almighty God for 

* William III. 



136 



APPENDIX. 



his mercies to this nation, and to procure a con- 
tinuance of them to us and to our posterity; but 
vice was looked upon as too formidable an enemy 
to be provoked .... When things were in 
this dismal and almost desperate state, it came into 
the hearts, it seems, of five or six private gentlemen 
of the Church of England to engage in this diffi- 
cult and hazardous enterprise, who, considering that 
the higher the tide of wickedness was, the more need 
there was of opposing it ... resolved, what- 
ever difficulties they met with, to make their efforts 
for promoting the execution of our laws against pro- 
faneness and debauchery, and the suppressing of them 
by advisable methods. . . . Notwithstanding 
a furious opposition from adversaries, the ill offices 
of those from whom better things might have been 
expected, and the unkind neutrality of friends, 
these gentlemen, who in a little time began to 
add some others to their number, not only kept 
their ground but made farther advances ; for our 
late excellent Queen* having this affair laid before 
her in the absence of the King by Dr. Stillingfleet, 
she had just sentiments of it, and therefore thought 
it became her to give it countenance; she graciously 
condescended to thank those who were concerned 
in it, and afterwards upon this application made to 
her Majesty, she was pleased to send her letter to 
the Justices of Middlesex .... commanding them 
to put the laws against profaneness and vice in exe- 

*Mary II. Consort to William III. 



APPENDIX. 



137 



cution with all fidelity and impartiality .... 

" There is a very large body of persons, composed 
of the original society before-mentioned, with the 
additions that have been since made of persons of 
eminency in the law, members of parliament, jus- 
tices of peace, and considerable citizens of London, 
of known abilities and great integrity, who fre- 
quently meet to consult of the best methods for 
carrying on the business of reformation, and to be 
ready to advise and assist others that are already 
engaged, or any that are willing to join in the 
same design. This society is at a considerable 
yearly charge for the effectual managing their 
business; but takes no contributions of any but 
their own members, by whose endeavours . 
thousands of offenders in London and Westminster 
have been brought to punishment for swearing, 
drunkenness, and profanation of the Lord's day ; 
and a great part of the kingdom has been 
awakened, in some measure, to a sense of their 
duty in this respect, and thereby a very hopeful 
progress is made towards a general reformation. 
A second society is of about fifty persons, trades- 
men and others, who have more especially applied 
themselves to the suppression of lewdness, by 
bringing the offenders to legal punishment. 
These may have actually suppressed and rooted 
out about five hundred disorderly houses, and 
caused to be punished some thousands of lewd 
persons, besides swearers, drunkards, and pro- 
faners of the Lord's day, as may appear by their 



138 



APPENDIX. 



printed lists of offenders. These persons, by their 
prudent and legal management of their business, 
have received great countenance and encourage- 
ment in our courts of judicature, and very par- 
ticular encouragement and assistance, for several 
years past, from the Lord Mayor and Court of 
Aldermen, who are sensible of the great service 
that is done by them, which they express upon 
proper occasions. A third society is of constables 

. . . . who meet to consider of the most 
effectual way to discharge their oaths, to acquaint 
one another of the difficulties they meet with, to 
resolve on proper remedies .... 

" A fourth rank of men, who have been so highly 
instrumental in this undertaking, that they may be 
reckoned a corner-stone of it, is of such as have 
made it part of their business to give some informa- 
tions to the magistrate .... Many of these per- 
sons have given the world a great and almost un- 
heard-of example in this corrupt age, of zeal and 
Christian courage, having underwent, at the begin- 
ning more especially of these proceedings, many 
abuses and great reproaches, not only from exas- 
perated and hardened offenders, but often from 
their lukewarm friends, irreligious relations, and 
sometimes from unfaithful magistrates, by whom 
they have been reviled, brow-beaten, and discou- 
raged from performing such important service, 
so necessary to the welfare of their country. And 
herein these brave men have acted with so great 
prudence, as well as zeal, that the world 



APPENDIX. 



139 



may be challenged to make appear, that these 
societies have been so much as treated with, by 
any person whatsoever, to give informations with 
any promise of a reward, or that they have ever 
received the least advantage by any convictions 
upon these statutes against profaneness and de- 
bauchery, the money arising thereby being wholly 
appropriated to the poor, except the third part of 
the penalty upon the statute against profanation of 
the Lord's day, which, in some cases, the magis- 
trate hath a bare power to dispose of, but was never, 
that we know of, received by any one of these 
persons 

" There are eight otherregulated and mixt bodies 
of housekeepers and officers, in the several quarters 
of London, Westminster, and Southwark, who 
differ in their constitution from those before-men- 
tioned, but generally agree in the methods of in- 
specting the behaviour of constables and other 
officers, and going along with them, and assisting 
them 

" I might now give an account of a society of 
ministers of the Church of England for carrying on 
of this work, and another agreement of justices 
of the peace; but . . . must content myself with 
saying, what will easily be allowed, that the stated 
meetings of such persons are as proper, and may 
be more useful for the promoting of this work, 
than any other I have described. For what might 
we not expect from the zealous endeavours of 
these orders of men in this affair ? which, it is 



140 



APPENDIX. 



obvious, will not be employed with so great effect, 
as when they form themselves into societies, or 
at least have frequent or stated times of meeting 
for the prosecution of this business. 

" The endeavours of those gentlemen have 
not been confined to this city and kingdom, but 
have extended as far as Ireland .... There 
are now several societies for reformation in the 
city of Dublin, which I am assured, .... are 
spreading into several parts of the kingdom, and 
are encouraged by his excellency the Earl of 
Galway, (one of the Lords Justices of Ireland) the 
Archbishop of Dublin, many of the clergy, and 
the best of the magistrates and gentlemen of that 
city : in one of which societies, most of the parish 
ministers of Dublin, several of the pious bishops, 
particularly the archbishop, and divers other per- 
sons of quality are members ; some of whom have 
shewn a zeal, which if it prevailed the three king- 
doms over, might soon produce a glorious reverse 
of the state they are now in, and which in less than 
two years space hath succeeded, though not without 
such various oppositions as might be expected from 
combinations of bad men, to that degree in Dublin, 
that the profanation of the Lord's day, by tipling 
in public houses, by exercising of trade, and ex- 
posing of goods to sale, is almost supprest ; that 
lewd women are so strictly enquired after, and 
severely punished, that they have transported them- 
selves, as in England, to our plantations ; and 
that swearing is so run down, that an oath is rarely 



APPENDIX. 



141 



heard in their streets ; so that public disorders are 
remarkably cured, and, in short, vice is afraid and 
ashamed to shew its head, where within a few 
years past it was daring and triumphant." 



No. II. 

Co-operation of the Laity with the Clergy in the 
Primitive Church. 

The following additional proofs of the co-opera- 
tion of the Lay-members of the primitive Church 
with the Clergy in benevolent and religious offices, 
are extracted from Bingham's " Antiquities of 
the Christian Church." 

" It remains," says that valuable author, " that 
I say something in this place of Deaconesses, be- 
cause their office and service was of great use in the 
primitive church. There is some mention made of 
them in Scripture, by which it appears that their 
office was as ancient as the apostolical age. 
St. Paul calls Phoebe a servant of the church of 
Cenchrea. Rom. xvi. 1. The original word is 
diakonos, a deaconess, answerable to the Latin 
word ministra, which is the name that is given 
them in Pliny's Epistle,* which speaks about the 
Christians." Unmarried persons as well as widows 

* Plin. lib. 10. Ep. 97. '* Quo magis necessarium credidi 
ex duabus ancillis, quae ministrse dicebantur, quid esset veri, 
et per tormenta quaerere." 



142 APPENDIX. 

were admitted to be deaconesses. " Gregory 
Nyssen says his own sister Macrina, who was a 
virgin, was a deaconess." With respect to the 
time of their continuance, Bingham observes — 
" In the Greek Church they continued ... to the 
latter end of the 12th century." Prom the Council 
of Worms, which was held in the 9th century, it 
appears, according to the same author, '* that 
deaconesses were still retained in some parts of the 
Western Church." 

Bingham describes a class of Lay-helpers, who 
had a humane rather than religious office assigned 
them, and were called Parabolani. The Para- 
bolani, Bingham observes, " were to be chosen out 
of the poor of Alexandria," (by a law of Theodo- 
sius the younger,) and " deputed to attend upon 
the sick and to take care of their bodies in time 
of their weakness. At Alexandria they were in- 
corporated into a society to the number of five or 
six hundred, to be chosen at the discretion of the 
bishop of the place, out of any sort of men except 
the Honorati and Curiales, who were tied to serve 
in the civil offices of their country, and therefore 
were not allowed to enter themselves into any 
ecclesiastical service. They were to be under the 
government and direction of the bishop." 

Bingham proceeds to remark — " The Greeks 
were used to call those Paraboloi who hired them- 
selves out to fight with wild beasts in the amphi- 
theatre These Parabolani of the Primitive 



APPENDIX. 



143 



Church . . . had their name from their bold 
exposing of their lives to danger in attendance 
upon the sick in all infectious and pestilential dis- 
tempers." Those who were truly pious persons 
amongst them would of course endeavour to in- 
struct or console the sufferers. There was, how- 
ever, another class of Lay-helpers whose office 
was more expressly religious — that of Catechists. 
Having stated that on some occasions, bishops, 
priests, and deacons catechised, Bingham adds, 
" Nor was it only the superior orders that per- 
formed this office, but sometimes persons were 
chosen out of (he inferior orders to do it. Optatus 
was but a reader in the Church of Carthage, and 
yet Cyprian made him catechist, or, as it is in his 
phrase, the Doctor Audientium, the master (teacher) 
of the hearers, or lowest rank of catechumens. 
Origen seems to have had no higher degree in the 
church, when he was first made catechist at Alex- 
andria. For both Eusebius and St. Jerom say he 
was but eighteen years old when he was deputed to 
that office, which was at least seven years before he 
could be ordained deacon by the canons of the 
church." Catechists were sometimes called Nau- 
tologoi, or those whose office was to admit pas- 
sengers to the ship (to which the church was com- 
pared) in which the bishop was pilot, the pres- 
byters mariners, the deacons chief rowers. 

I have alluded to catechists as properly Lay- 
helpers, since in the earliest ages, as in the present 



144 



APPENDIX. 



day in England, the clergy consisted only of 
bishops, priests, and deacons. In the third cen- 
tury, however, readers, sub-deacons, catechists, 
&c. were considered as part of the clergy. 



No. III. 

Advantages likely to arise from Visiting Associations 
in Ireland. 

I am deepty convinced that the condition of Ire- 
land is such as to present obstacles of a formidable 
kind to any improvements that may be attempted 
from the purest motives, and on the most judicious 
plans. Antipathies arising from the political and 
religious differences of its inhabitants have a ten- 
dency to thwart the most benevolent efforts. Still 
these efforts should be made with untiring patience 
and perseverance. The gradual diffusion of scrip- 
tural instruction, however checked occasionally by 
superstition, bigotry, or infidelity, will at length 
achieve the noblest triumphs and raise that country 
from its present degraded state. It remains to be 
seen whether the British Government will sanction 
three great measures which the poverty of a re- 
dundant and unemployed population may perhaps 
render indispensable — namely, Emigration to fo- 
reign countries on a large and well-regulated sys- 
tem, the establishment of Poor's Rates, and the 
formation of Home Colonies. 



APPENDIX. 



145 



But whatever other measures may be contem- 
plated, well conducted Visiting Associations cannot 
but be highly useful, and in order that it may be 
seen, by the statement of a few particulars, ex- 
pressed in a concise manner, how benefits which 
Ireland urgently requires may be conferred, and 
existing or impending evils averted by means of 
such associations in cities, market towns, and vil- 
lages, the following remarks are submitted for 
consideration. 

1. Visiting members of Associations, by re- 
lieving the destitute at their own houses, will be 
able to check that disposition which prevails among 
poor Irish families to wander over the country, and 
depend on the precarious supplies which the bounty 
of others affords, Thus will the more industrious 
farmers, and inferior tenants be relieved from the 
painful alternative of giving indiscriminately, to 
those who have done no work, part of the food 
which they have obtained themselves by honest 
industry; or of sending them in a state of want 
from their doors. 

2. The influence and counsels of Visiting Mem- 
bers will probably avail, to a great extent, to check 
that habit of contracting premature and indiscreet 
marriages, which has been the too fruitful source of 
a redundant population,* and of much of that 
distress from want of employment which afflicts 
Ireland. 

3. The prudent advice of Visitors, who shall have 
acquired the necessary information, may induce the 

H 



146 



APPENDIX. 



poor, by careful attention to the most approved 
systems of cottage husbandry, to cultivate to much 
greater advantage than at present their small allot- 
ments of land; and thus guard them against ex- 
hausting the ground by an injudicious succession of 
crops, or using seed of inferior quality ; — circum- 
stances which might at a future time, especially 
in an unfavourable season, occasion scarcity of 
food. 

4. Visiting Members of Associations will like- 
wise have opportunities of encouraging habits of 
industry. Whilst endeavouring to stimulate the 
indolent to work diligently for their own livelihood, 
they will have it in their power, should their 
advice be contemned, more or less to withhold 
relief from those who remain incorrigibly idle, and 
who are desperately resolved to live, and to bring 
up their children, in habits of sloth, and in the 
midst of squalid misery. 

5. Visitors will naturally inculcate economy as 
well as industry. Although custom and example 
have a pernicious tendency to diffuse and per- 
petuate the practice of drinking ardent spirits to 
excess, a counteracting force will attend the con- 
stantly repeated visits of benevolent members of 
Associations; who may be expected to acquire 
great influence over those who are not deeply sunk 
in the degrading habit of dram-drinking; and to 
succeed in inducing them to study prudence, fore- 
sight, and economy, and place the money they can 
spare in Savings' Banks or well regulated Friendly 



APPENDIX. 



147 



Benefit Societies. And here it may be incidentally 
remarked, that the habits of industry, sobriety, 
and economy, now adverted to, are not only highly 
important in reference to the welfare of the families 
who remain in Ireland, but of those also who may 
hereafter emigrate to distant parts of the globe ; 
since the want of such habits has often been a great 
obstacle to the prosperity of colonists, and may 
even cause a total failure of their enterprises. 

6. Visitors, — who, no doubt, will in the majority 
of instances be Protestants, — by exemplifying the 
virtues which the Gospel enjoins, may largely con- 
tribute to dispel the prejudices and antipathies 
which exist amongst Roman Catholics against 
the Clergy and Laity of the Established Church. 
The happy consequences of this benevolent con- 
duct of members of Visiting Associations would 
be, not only that the rancour attending religious 
and political dissentions will be gradually allayed, 
but that Roman Catholic parents will more wil- 
lingly, than even hitherto, listen to the persuasive 
representations of those who visit their cottages, 
and send their children to schools for the purpose 
of receiving a useful and religious education. 
Thus will the friendly visiting members of Associa- 
tions become a peaceful but powerful phalanx 
arrayed against the designs of the enemies of public 
order, who might be disposed to promote discord 
and disloyalty ; — until, at length, the virulence of 
party-feeling shall be exchanged, in a great mea~ 

ii 2 



148 



APPENDIX. 



sure, for sentiments of gratitnde to kind neighbours; 
of respect for landlords and other benefactors who 
may contribute to the funds of such Associations; 
and of fixed attachment to a paternal Government. 

Whilst such a Society will be constantly useful 
in administering to the wants of the destitute, it 
may be added, that whenever a scarcity of food* 
arises in Ireland through the prevalence of weather 
unfavourable to the crops, or any other cause, 
the members of established Charitable Associations 
will, from their acquired habits of experience, as 
well as humane disposition, be the fittest persons 
to distribute those larger contributions which the 
British Parliament or public may send to the 
sister country at so calamitous a season, and 
which, without due caution, may be diverted into 
channels not contemplated by the donors, nor most 
advantageous to the poor of Ireland. 

* The Author, uuwilling to extend his remarks on Ireland 
in this place, may be permitted to refer to a volume which he 
has published — " Brief Memorials of Oberlin and De StaeT" — 
in which he has introduced several observations relative 
to the means of preventing the occasional returns of famine, 
and of diminishing the general sum of misery and privation, 
under which the poor of that country labour. He now more 
particularly refers to pp. 50 — 58 of that work. 



APPENDIX. 



149 



No. IV. 

An Account of Schools for Adults in Wales and 
Scotland, 

In a letter from Wales, dated 17th December, 
1811, and addressed by the Rev. Mr. Charles to 
Mr. Christopher Anderson, he says, 

" The schools go on here with increasing suc- 
cess, and the effects of them in many parts of the 
country are visible, in the increase of the knowledge 
of the Sacred Scriptures, and melioration of the 
morals of the plebeians in general. 

I have of late turned my attention more than 
ever to the aged illiterate people in our country. 
On minute inquiries, I find there are very many 
who cannot read, and of course are very ignorant 

I determined to try what effect a school, 

exclusively for themselves, would have. I fixed 
upon a district where 1 had been informed that 
most of the inhabitants above fifty years of age 
could not read, and I prevailed on a friend to 

promise to attend to teach them Eighteen 

attended the first Sunday. He found them in a 
state of most deplorable ignorance. By condescen- 
sion, patience, and kindness, he soon engaged them to 
learn, and their desire for learning soon became as 
great as any we have seen among the young people. 



150 APPENDIX. 

They had their litle elementary books with them 
whilst at work, and met in the evenings of their 
own accord to teach one another. Their school 
is now increased to eighty persons, and some 
of them read their Testaments, though it is not 
three months since the school commenced. Chil- 
dren are excluded from this school ; but we have 
another school for them. The rumour of the 
success of this school has spread abroad, and has 
greatly removed the discouragement which old 
people felt from attempting to learn, from the 
general persuasion that they could not learn at 
their age. This has been practically proved to be 
false ; for old persons of seventy -Jive years of age 
have learnt to read in this school, to their great 
joy. Several other similar institutions have been 
set up since, and promise similar success." 

At a still earlier period, namely, from 1737 
to 1760, when the Welsh Circulating Schools 
established by the Rev. Griffith Jones were in 
full activity, the masters not only taught children 
by day, but kept evening schools for those adults, 
who, though occupied in the day-time in labour, 
yet attended in great numbers. It is even recorded 
that children, educated in these schools often 
taught their parents to read. 

Mr. Christopher Anderson remarks, 
" Schools for the education of our Highlanders, 
directly and in the first instance, to read their own 

language, were not established until 1811 

After an acquaintance with the state of the High- 



APPENDIX. 



151 



lands, all along the Western Coast of Scotland, 
in 1810, the writer could find nothing of the sort. 
The practice universally was, that of teaching 
English first; and no small prejudice was then 
discovered at the idea of teaching at once the 

vernacular tongue The letter procured 

from Mr. Charles, of Wales . . . was among the 
steps preparatory. Now the prejudice is gone. 
His Majesty, on visiting Scotland, through Mr. 
Peel, with great cordiality became Patron of the 
Society for the support of Gaelic schools, and 
since that period the General Assembly have taken 

up the same idea To these Gaelic 

schools have resorted, not only the child of tender 
years, but the old man and woman that stoop for 
age. Never, since education was promoted by 
any body of men, was it found necessary to supply 
assistance to the eyes themselves. Yet such has 
been the eagerness of certain aged scholars in the 
Highlands, that, in order to meet it, the Gaelic 
School Society have had placed at their disposal, 
during last year, 120 pairs of spectacles. But 
I must not enlarge, and shall simply advert to 
one school in the Hebrides, where 237 scholars 
were present at the examination lately, of all ages, 
from literally a great-great-grandmother down to 
the child of five years. And, . . why should not 
such a heart-stirring sight soon be seen among the 
long, long-neglected islanders of Ireland.''* 



* Historical Sketches of the Native Irish, pp. 136, 137. 



152 



APPENDIX. 



I must add, that whilst it is pleasing to perceive 
the embers again stirred after a lapse of centuries, 
and the elements of knowledge again revived in 
the Hebrides, and in Ireland,* it is to be deeply 
deplored that the past neglect of Christians to give 
instruction in the vernacular tongue has so long 
plunged both Ireland and the Western Coast of 
Scotland in ignorance : although of Ireland there 
are authentic testimonies that it abounded in schools 
of learning before the introduction of the English 
tongue; whilst Iona, one of the Hebrides, Dr. 
Johnson truly and eloquently observes, " was once 
the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence 
savage clans and roving barbarians derived the 
benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of reli- 
gion." 

* Happily, efforts are now made to instruct the Irish adults 
as well as children, in their native tongue, by the " Irish So- 
ciety," the " Hibernian Society," and " Ladies' Hibernian 
Society." The work of Mr. Christopher Anderson contributed 
much to shew the importance of such efforts. 

When last in Piedmont, I urged the importance of commu- 
nicating instruction to the Waldenses in their own dialect, as 
well as in French, and the Rev. M. Bert kindly translated the 
Gospels of St. Luke and St. John into that dialect. The Bible 
Society have published those Gospels in French and the Vau- 
dois dialect in parallel columns. 1 think that elementary 
books, or the Gospels printed in the same manner, in English 
and Irish, in English and Welsh, or English and Gaelie, would 
much facilitate the acquisition of English by the more igno- 
rant inhabitants of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. The re- 
mark equally applies to India, and other parts of the British 
empire. 



APPENDIX. 



153 



No. V. 

An easy Method of instructing Adults to read. 

The chief object in instructing ignorant adults to 
read is to enable them to read the Scriptures. With 
this view I thought it might be useful to select and 
arrange all the words in the Sermon on the Mount 
(5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of St. Matthew) begin- 
ning with the alphabet, then proceeding to the 
monosyllables, and so step by step to the longest 
and most difficult words. Having published such 
a small introduction to reading the Scriptures in 
English, I afterwards, when at Paris, arranged 
the same chapters, for the same purpose, in French, 
for the use of poor Protestants in France, should 
the plan be approved, and of the Vaudois in Pied- 
mont. To this latter piece, called " Le Premier 
Pas," a short address was prefixed, explaining 
an easy method of teaching persons to read ; the 
substance of which is as follows. 

The " Premier Pas," or " First Step to Reading 
the Holy Scriptures," calculated for either adults 
or children, is more especially so for those who 
live in remote villages, and thinly-peopled districts, 
where no schoolmasters or schoolmistresses can be 
supported by the peasantry. 

The ability to read the Sermon on the Mount 
(after reading all the words in the ten pages of the 
" Premier Pas") may be soon acquired by those 

H 3 



154 



APPENDIX. 



who may be willing to give up one hour during 
the long evenings of a winter, and one or two hours 
on the Lord's day : and when able to read fluently 
the Sermon on the Mount, they will be able to 
read other parts of the New Testament with little 
difficulty. 

Let us suppose that there are five persons in a 
small village who can read, and whose benevolence 
shall prompt them to teach their neighbours who 
cannot. 

(1.) Let each of those five persons get about 
ten persons who cannot read around him, every 
one of them having the " First Step" in his hand. 

(2.) Let the teacher shew them where the lesson 
begins, and then let him pronounce distinctly a 
letter or word. Then let the person at his right 
hand repeat the same letter or word ; and the next 
person do the same ; and so on till every one shall 
have pronounced it. Let the teacher afterwards 
repeat the same, and let the person at his left hand 
next repeat, and the next afterwards, till every one 
shall have repeated it. The letter or word will thus 
have been pronounced above twenty times; and 
if each person has constantly looked at it in the 
book whilst it was pronounced by all present, 
it will be deeply fixed in the memory. If any 
one through inattention makes mistakes, he should 
yield his place to one more attentive to the lesson. 

(3.) At the end of each lesson, in order to ascer- 
tain the reality and extent of progress, the teacher 
should question all the learners indiscriminately, 



APPENDIX. 155 

making them pronounce here and there, not in 
exact order, the letters or words learned during 
that lesson. He should do the same at the end 
of every week, wth respect to the lessons learned 
during that week. 

(4.) When the learners are able to read fluently 
all the words in the " First Step," they will of 
course read the Sermon on the Mount, either in or 
extracted from St. Matthew's Gospel.* When 
that sermon has been read repeatedly, and with 
attention to the stops, they may proceed to read 
other parts of the Scriptures, in which ouly occa" 
sional difficulties will occur. 

In this easy manner may the ignoraut obtain 
access to the treasures of that sacred volume which 
is able, with the blessing of God's Holy Spirit, to 
make them wise unto salvation, through faith in 
our Lord Jesus Christ. 



No. VI. 

Particulars relative to the Order of " Sisters of 
Charity.*' 

Vincent de Paul drew up various general re- 
gulations for the " Filles," or " Sceurs de laCharite," 
as well as particular rules adapted to each depart- 

* For the National Schools the Sermon on the Mount is 
printed in the form of a tract. So it is by the Paris Reli- 
gious Tract Society. 



156 



APPENDIX. 



ment of service. He endeavoured to excite them 
to the pursuit of superior holiness, by enjoining 
them, 

1. To make it an object to honour their Saviour 
in their attention to the poor. 

2. To consider themselves, though not nuns, 
bound to equal nuns in virtue ; and if they lived 
in hospitals instead of convents, or in a hired room 
instead of a cell, and walked through the streets 
instead of being cloistered, to substitute obedience 
for confinement, the fear of God for the iron grate, 
and modesty of deportment for a veil. 

3. Consequently, to exercise constant vigilance, 
and aim at real purity of heart. 

4. Therefore, to avoid levity and familiarity of 
manners, and improper conversation. 

5. To pray to the Son of God before they left 
their room, for grace to turn away their eyes from 
beholding vanity and sin, and to give thanks on 
their return home if so preserved. 

6. To guard against idleness at any time. 

7. To rise as early as four o'clock in summer and 
winter. 

0. To engage in mental prayer twice a day. 

9. To live frugally, and, when in health, to 
drink only water. 

10. To attend religious services at the church, 
but, whenever wanted, to make outward religious 
observances subordinate to the care of the sick. 

11. To converse on subjects of religion with 



APPENDIX. 



167 



the sick, as well as alleviate their bodily sufferings, 
but to talk to them a little at a time and often, 

M. "Vincent also held spiritual conferences on 
their duties, and the best means of fulfilling them ; 
and, after he had addressed a crowd of these bene* 
volent women, invited them to converse openly at 
these conferences. The substance of about a hun* 
dred of these conferences has been preserved in 
MS. as a sacred treasure from which, even at this 
distance of time, the Sisters of Charity take lessons 
and rekindle zeal. Although generally of the 
middle class, ladies of high connexions have, in 
some instances, joined the Sisters of Charity in 
their benevolent efforts. Before they are received 
into the community they pass about eight months 
in the House for Novices, and are also five years 
uuder probation; and, when admitted, take no 
perpetual vows, like nuns, but vows or promises 
for one year, which they renew yearly ; namely, the 
three ordiuary vows, obedience, chastity, and po- 
verty, and a fourth, the care of the poor. 

These humble " servants of the poor," are sub- 
ject to the control of the " Congregation of priests 
of the missions ; w one of whom most kindly shewed 
me the house in which the novices are trained at 
Paris,* the chapel and grounds attached to it> 

* It is in the Rue du Bac. The original house was oppo- 
site the House St. Lazare ; hnt it is now a " Maison de 
Sante," unconnected with Vincent de Paul's community, 



158 



APPENDIX. 



and the house and chapel appropriated by the 
French government to the use of the " Priests of 
the Missions." The former house contains about 
100 candidates, as well as aged Sisters who are 
past the age of service. Their dress is a black 
gown and white cap, large and of a peculiar form. 
Those engaged in active duties lodge in private 
houses, or in hospitals, in different parts of the 
city. I have often seen, and sometimes conversed 
with, these excellent women in hospitals under 
their care,* and cannot but express my deep con- 
viction that after an abatement on account of their 
erroneous religious views as Roman Catholics, they 
are eminently fitted by their benevolence, humility, 
sympathy, and prudence, to accomplish the duties 
assigned to them. Whether a similar institution, 
wholly divested of what is peculiar to the Roman 
Catholic religion, whilst it retained all that was 
valuable in the system established by M. Vincent, 
would not be highly beneficial even to a reformed 
kingdom and to Protestant parishes, is a question 
which deserves to be entertained and fairly dis- 
cussed. The sick in our hospitals, and the sick at 
their own homes, would, if such an Association 
upon Protestant principles of the Church of Eng- 
land were formed, derive advantages both as to 
bodily relief and spiritual consolation, far beyond 

* There is a manual published by M. Eymery, bookseller, 
Rue Mazarine, for the use of mothers, country clergymen, 
and sisters of charity. It is entitled " Art de Soigner 
Malades," and is probably worthy of translation. 



APPENDIX. 



159 



what they now enjoy ; and doubtless, such ex- 
perienced and well disposed persons would be more 
desirable in the sick chambers of those who are in 
opulent circumstances, who might pay for their 
attendance, than ordinary nurses. Were such 
a Society of beneficent females once formed in 
England, under high patronage and adequate pe- 
cuniary encouragement, with members of different 
grades and employments, and suitable regulations; 
it might become, on account of the great extent of 
the British empire, not only useful at home, but, 
the centre of similar establishments in Ireland, 
India, North America, &c. 

The Sisters of Charity are always " Filles;" 
widows are not admitted into the institution ; yet 
widows would, in many cases, be some of the best 
members of such a Protestant institution ; the most 
efficient and the most suitable. Any similar com- 
munity, founded on Protestant principles, should 
not comprise the education of poor children, but 
wholly confine its attention to the sick. ~No great 
singularity in dress need be adopted, nor vows that 
might entangle the conscience taken. And, in- 
deed, if no separate community were actually 
formed, females of promising dispositions as to 
piety, temper, and prudence, might be trained as 
nurses to attend the sick either in hospitals or pri- 
vate houses, and to live in town or country, 
single or married, deriving support — not from the 
government, nor from a fund established by means 



160 



APPENDIX. 



of charitable contributions, but — by fair remunera- 
tion for their services — from the directors of hospi- 
tals, from opulent persons in whose houses atten- 
dance on the sick may be required, and from the 
managers of parochial funds, if employed in at- 
tending the sick poor.* 

On one occasion a wide scene of misery present- 
ed itself to the humane notice of Vincent de Paul, 
and his associates, namely, when the Spaniards 
ravaged Picardy and Champagne. The soldiers 
reaped the corn, the people, consequently, were ex- 
posed to famine ; the churches were despoiled, and 
many parishes deserted by the Cures. The Arch- 

* I noticed at Paris that there were male attendants, very 
properly, in the sick men's wards, although the Sisters of 
Charity also were present to fulfil the duties appointed to 
them. Nearly the whole of this chapter had been written, 
when a pamphlet was obligingly transmitted to me, entitled 
f » Protestant Sisters of Charity ; a letter addressed to 
the Lord Bishop of London, developing a plan for improving 
the arrangements at present existing for administering medi- 
cal advice, and visiting the sick poor," by a Country Clergy- 
man. It describes the peculiar disadvantages under which the 
sick poor labour in country villages, and recommends the 
formation of an establishment, to which a Ladies' Committee, 
a General Committee, and a Medical Committee, as well as a 
Chaplain and Matron, shall be attached. It is proposed that 
persons duly qualified by piety, and slight but solid medical 
knowledge, should be employed to visit the sick in large 
country parishes, and receive about ,£60 a-year for their as- 
sistance—a larger sum, it may be feared, than could be gene- 
rally obtained. There are many important remarks in this 
pamphlet worthy of the attention of the more opulent mem- 
bers of Society. 



APPENDIX. 



161 



bishop of Paris, at Vincent's request, persuaded 
the clergy to collect alms in the churches. Mis- 
sionaries* and Sisters of Charity were sent 
without delay to those suffering provinces, which 
were for ten years subject to the vicissitudes and 
calamities of war. Above one million of francs 
were dispersed for their relief, in money, clothes, 
seeds, implements of husbandry, &c. 

When civil war, fomented by the Prince of 
Conde, desolated the interior of France, there was 
a fresh call upon Vincent's humanity. Some Irish 
regiments, composed of refugees from Ireland in 
the time of Cromwell, received into the French 
army, were sufferers to a great degree, with their 
wives and children, at the town of Troyes. An 
Irish missionary was sent from St. Lazare to relieve 
and to instruct them. The above civil war was 
fruitful of calamity both in and around the metro- 
polis itself. Vincent's Missionaries and " Sisters of 
Charity," were sent on that occasion to console the 
sufferers, whom the soldiers had injured. The sick 
were attended to, and the orphans were collected 
into a house and fed. At the suggestion of M. Du- 
plessis-Montbart, Vincent established a store- 
house for receiving cast-off clothes, and furniture, 
for the use of the distressed ; and when Paris was 
besieged, and labourers were deprived of work, 

* The Missionaries instituted by Vincent de Paul, were an 
order of Priests, trained principally as preachers to the poor in 
country villages, but having no fixed parishes. 



162 



APPENDIX. 



those ladies who usually assisted Vincent in works 
of beneficence supplied 15,000 poor persons daily 
with soup, and placed 900 young women in houses 
where they might be safe from ill treatment as 
well as instructed. Meanwhile Vincent himself 
assembled the poor children of the neighbourhood of 
St. Lazare, formed them into 15 bands, catechised 
them himself, and gave them food twice a-day. 

Next to those measures which individuals or 
associated bodies may be able to adopt, for the 
preservation of peace and the promotion of concord 
amongst nations, what measures can be more laud- 
able than those just described for mitigating the 
evils of war by humane supplies and religious con- 
solations ? It can only be regretted that those of 
V. de Paul's associates were not of a more truly 
scriptural nature. 



No. VJI. 

Details respecting the " Compagnie de Dames" 

When the Archbishop of Paris encouraged 
Vincent de Paul to form the '< Compagnie de 
Dames," Mme. Goussault was appointed Superior, 
another Assistant, a third Treasurer, and M. Vin- 
cent, Director. Within a few years this " Com- 
pagnie" comprised about 200 ladies, many of 
whom were of the highest rank. Fourteen were 
chosen once in three months, two of whom were to 



APPENDIX. 



163 



attend one day in the week. They undertook to 
converse with the sick on religious subjects in a 
plain affectionate manner; — that is, with the women 
only ; — and provided six priests to instruct the 
men. To help them to act prudently and success- 
fully, Vincent enjoined them to follow these rules. 

1. To gain the esteem of the nuns more imme- 
diately charged with the duties of the Hotel Dieu, 
and obtain their cordial consent to these visits. 

2. To approach the sick without the splendid 
dresses usually adopted by persons of their rank. 

3. To furnish little articles of comfort to the 
sick which were not allowed at the expense of the 
hospital, but yet were desirable for sick persons, 
by whom coarse food could not always be re- 
lished, and whose attention to spiritual advice 
would be more easily secured after such kindness. 

4. To use as a text book for conversations a 
small religious book drawn up expressly for this 
purpose, and thus modestly avoid the appearance 
of spiritual pride in their manner of conveying in- 
struction. 

To fulfil the third rule prescribed, a house was 
hired close by the Hotel Dieu, in which Sisters of 
Charity prepared milk soup for breakfast, and 
white bread, biscuits, stewed fruits, &c, which 
the ladies presented with their own hands to the 
sick.* 

* Tins act of kindness suggests to me the thought, that 
Charitable Associations ought to be formed near every large 
Hospital in our cities, for the purpose of receiving certain of 



164 APPENDIX. 

Although under M. Vincent's wise and compre- 
hensive direction such associated and opulent ladies 
as those just described were prepared for various 
and extensive plans of charity ; there can be no 
doubt that, generally speaking, many persons should 
not associate, as these' ladies did originally, for the 
benefit of a single, especially a minor Institution; 
but either act in smaller separate companies for 
separate objects, or in various departments em- 
braced by one great Association. And certainly, 
very often, as I have already had occasion to re- 
mark, ladies of rank may confer more important 
benefit by employing prudent and charitable persons 
to attend the sick than by attending themselves, 
whilst they devote their own time to duties in 
a higher sphere, and promote on a larger scale the 
interests of religion and humanity. 



the convalescents who have no friends at hand, and are far 
from home, when discharged from the hospital, and rendering 
the necessary aid till they become fit to work, or find places 
for employment. Many cases deserving of peculiar atten- 
tion will thus present themselves for counsel and relief, and 
much suffering be obviated. 



LONDON : 

J. DENNETT, PRINTER, LEATHER LANE, HOLBORN- 



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